Altered Reality
by skye5052
Summary: Marlena wakes up in a mental institution and discovers the Salem she knew, including her serial killing adventures, was nothing but a delusion. LUMI, PHELLE, BRICOLE, RIMI, etc.
1. Chapter 1

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter One**

She awoke to find herself in a white room with padded walls.

Crouched on the floor, she was pressed into a corner with her knees drawn to her chest. She blinked, looking down at the dull gray clothing she was wearing, and fingered the ends of her limp, flat hair as it fell across her neck in confusion. When had her hair gotten this long...?

"Sweetheart, can you hear me?"

Her eyes darted up towards the padded ceiling, taking in her surroundings, and panic started to set in as she realized where she was.

_No, _she thought frantically. _No, this can't be happening!_

"She's lucid," a woman's voice said, vaguely familiar. "Keep talking, maybe the sound of your voice will ground her."

"Doc?"

Somewhat startled to hear that voice calling her by that affectionate nickname, Marlena blinked, realizing for the first time that she was not alone in the white room. Several male nurses, all dressed in white and holding syringes, stood by the steel door, tense and ready to act if necessary.

And kneeling in front of her, a concerned and hopeful look on his face, was her husband.

"John," she breathed, relieved and frightened at the same time.

His eyes lit up with an emotion too strong for her to identify, and he swallowed hard before nodding. "Yeah, Doc," he replied huskily, tears starting to well up in his eyes. "It's me."

He reached out a hand to touch her cheek, and she was surprised by the tenderness he was demonstrating words her after everything she'd done. If she was in a mental ward, then surely that meant that she had been caught as the serial killer.

So why was he looking at her like she was some kind of angel instead of a murderer?

"John, I'd like to ask her a few questions if you don't mind."

Marlena lifted her head to find Doctor Lexie Carver standing off to the side, holding a clipboard in her hand and wearing a long white lab-coat. She met the younger woman's gaze, steeling herself for the anger and hatred of a woman who she had made a widow, but she found nothing to allude to any sort of negative emotions from Lexie at all.

"Sure thing," John agreed, and he squeezed Marlena's hand. "Just try and answer her questions as best as you can, okay, sweetheart?"

Feeling a bit confused as to what exactly was going on, Marlena merely nodded.

"Do you know who this man is?" Lexie asked, gesturing to John.

"My husband," Marlena answered, wondering why Lexie was asking such a ridiculous question. "John Black."

John sighed, disappointment falling across his face, and Lexie shook her head sadly.

"No, Doc," John said softly. "That's not my name."

Startled, Marlena frowned. "Well, I know it's not your birth name, John, you were born Forrest Alamain, but-"

"No," John interrupted with a shake of his head. "No, Marlena, I wasn't. I was born Roman John Brady, remember? John is my middle name, I've been going by it since I was just a boy."

Marlena laughed. "John, this isn't funny."

"No, it's not funny," John agreed grimly. "You've got to try to remember, Doc. Forget about that other place and come back to us."

Marlena tried to speak, but she couldn't find words, so she only stared at him in shocked silence. What was he talking about? Yes, at one point they had all believed him to be Roman, but that was years and years ago, and it had just been one of Stefano's tricks.

Roman Augustus Brady was dead, she knew because she'd slit his throat herself at his wedding reception.

"Do you know where you are?" Lexie asked.

"The sanitarium," Marlena responded with a grimace.

"And do you know why you're here?" Lexie prodded gently.

"Because I'm the Salem Stalker," Marlena confessed, getting annoyed with their strange behavior. She wasn't crazy, she'd had good reason to kill the people she had, even if she couldn't remember exactly why she'd done those things, but if they had her locked up in a padded room, she must have plead insanity. "Because I killed Abe, Jack, Maggie, Caroline, Cassie, Roman, Tony and Doug."

"You didn't kill anyone, Marlena," Lexie told her evenly. "None of that is real. You're in a mental institution, you've been here for the past three years.

"No," Marlena argued, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, that's not true. That can't be true."

"It is, Doc," John murmured, lifting her hand to his lips, his eyes filled with grief and the echo of years of pain and loneliness. "Abe, Ma, Cassie and Maggie are all alive. Doug and Julie live over in Europe, remember? And Tony's been dead for twenty years."

_Twenty years...!_ Marlena echoed to herself in disbelief.

"And Roman?" she whispered, afraid to hear the answer.

"There is no Roman," John answered gently. "At least not the Roman you think exists. Honey, I'm the only Roman Brady there's ever been in Salem. That other Roman, he's not real. He's just part of the delusion, like everything else that you think happened. It's all inside your head."

Marlena blinked in shock. "But that's not... it can't be true..."

"It is," John promised softly. "You've been very sick, baby, for a very long time. And we've missed you so much. The kids and I, we love you and we want you to come home."

"The kids..." Marlena echoed, a wave of dizziness washing over her. "Sami, Eric, Brady and Belle?"

A flicker of something she couldn't define passed through John's eyes. "They're fine, Doc, I promise, but Carrie, Rex and Cassie miss you, too."

"Cassie's dead," Marlena insisted, her throat tightening painfully. "I killed her."

"No, she's alive," John assured her. "She's safe and she's healthy." He chuckled, giving her a weak smile. "Well, I'm not so sure about the healthy part, actually, who knows what they're feeding her up at NYU."

"NYU?" Marlena repeated slowly. "She's at college in New York?"

"Yeah, she is," John nodded, a proud gleam in his eyes. "Like I brag down at the station, my stepdaughter's one talented little lady."

"Stepdaughter? Cassie's not my daughter," Marlena informed him with a frown. "We thought she was, but she's not. See, she's really Kate and Roman's daughter, I just carried her and Rex because Stefano..." Seeing John's expression, she trailed off, biting her lip. "That didn't happen, did it?" she asked softly.

"No," John replied quietly. "We divorced for a while when Eric and Sami were tiny, and you got involved with Tony DiMera for a few years."

"Why did we divorce?" Marlena asked absently, trying to understand the things she was hearing. It was crazy, this was some kind of trick, it had to be. Was this some kind of sick punishment for all the evil things she'd done?

"My ex-girlfriend Anna came back to town," John answered. "It turned out that when she'd left town all those years ago, she'd been pregnant. I had a six year-old daughter I didn't even know about until the day they showed up on our doorstep."

"Carrie," Marlena said knowingly.

"Right," John nodded. "It put a strain on our marriage, and even though the twins were only a year old, you filed for divorce. After you began your relationship with Tony, I met and fell in love with Isabella Kiriakis."

"Don't you mean Toscano?" Marlena asked in confusion.

"That's part of the delusions, sweetheart," John told her gently. "Isabella grew up in Rome with her mother, but Victor visited her often while she was growing up, she knew he was her father."

"Oh," she muttered, her chest tight with anxiety. None of this made any sense, she had no idea what John was talking about, but if she was in the sanitarium and they said that she was sick, then maybe it was true...

"Isabella and I weren't planning on getting married," John continued lowly. "But when she got pregnant, we decided it was for the best. Since Victor didn't have a son yet, and it looked doubtful that he ever would, Isabella wanted to give our son the Kiriakis name, so we named him Brady Kiriakis." He paused, searching her gaze hopefully. "Does any of this ring a bell at all?"

"I'm sorry," Marlena whispered, and she meant it. "I wish it did."

"Don't worry about it," John said, squeezing her hand. "Lexie says it will take time for you to adjust, but things will start to come back to you slowly."

Marlena nodded silently, but she wasn't too sure. None of this seemed possible, and yet part of her wanted to believe it.

"A year after Brady was born, you gave birth to Rex and Cassie."

"That can't be right," Marlena cried, frustrated that she none of her memories, what she thought to be true, were matching up with what he was telling her. "Brady is more than a year older than they are."

"No, baby, he's not," John sighed. "Think about it for a minute, okay? Didn't you ever notice that in your world, kids aged a lot faster than normal? And not just our kids, but all of the kids in town? I mean, you've claimed that Philip Kiriakis was born just before our grandson Will, but then later you changed your story so that he's Belle's age."

"It's not unusual for a patient with severe psychoses, such as yours, Marlena," Lexie spoke up. "To absorb the things family and friends update you on during their visits and then incorporate them into the delusionary world. As time progressed, more and more inconsistencies began to appear in your hallucinations."

Marlena tried to protest, and her mouth moved, but no sound came out. Her head was spinning, her heart pounding so loud she couldn't think. Now that she thought about it, a lot of strange things like that had gone unnoticed until now.

"How old is Philip?" she asked softly.

"Twenty," John answered. "The same as Belle, they've been dating since they were fifteen."

"But what about Shawn?" Marlena asked incredulously. Surely her youngest daughter was still in love with Shawn-Douglas Brady, that had been the only reason she'd been hesitant to kill him when he began to suspect her as the killer.

"Shawn is her cousin, Doc," John reminded her patiently. "Bo is my brother, remember?"

"Oh," Marlena murmured, feeling flustered. "Right..."

"It's okay, Marlena," John whispered tenderly. "I know this is hard for you."

_You have no idea,_ Marlena thought with a groan. _This is crazy, this is... this is just not possible... is it?_

"A lot of what you perceive to be real, you'll find is simply make-believe," Lexie told her, looking at her with sympathy. "Not just events, but relationships and details about people's lives."

"What's wrong with me?" Marlena questioned evenly. Being a psychiatrist, or a former psychiatrist if what they were saying was true, she had a pretty good idea, but she wanted to hear it from Lexie to be sure.

"A little over three years ago, you started to have hallucinations," Lexie explained gently. "You experienced paranoia and began to believe things had happened that never happened. You were diagnosed with an undifferentiated type of schizophrenia."

"And you're a psychiatrist?" Marlena asked curiously. Lexie always had seemed to be good at just about every field of medicine, so she didn't know why she was surprised.

"You were my supervisor my first year of residency at the hospital's psych ward," Lexie replied with a weak smile. She paused a moment to let Marlena absorb that, then continued with her explanation. "Your mind has created an elaborate and complex history to support your delusions, down to the most minuscule detail. Even though you've only been sick for three years, you've concocted several decades worth of events as a backstory for what you perceived to be reality."

"Like Ma having an affair with Victor Kiriakis," John piped up, unable to keep from wincing at that idea.

"Exactly," Lexie agreed with a nod. "Your mind dreamed up things that never really happened to pull you deeper into the psychoses."

Marlena bit her lip, staring past them at the white walls for a long moment, trying to let her brain process what she'd just been told. It sounded crazy, but then again, the truth usually did sound crazy to a crazy person. And if she looked at it from an outside point of view, it made much more sense than a world where children jumped from ten to fifteen overnight and where people were constantly believed dead and then miraculously coming back to life again.

But if that was true then it meant that her whole life, her whole world, really, wasn't real. Everything she'd ever believed to be true was a lie, an illusion produced by a disease in her brain...

"You said I've been in here for three years?" she finally asked, forcing herself to keep a steady voice.

"That's right," Lexie confirmed.

"Is this the first time I've been lucid?" Marlena wanted to know, even though part of her didn't want to know the answer.

"You've had moments in the past where you were coherent," Lexie informed her. "But they were rare, and never lasted more than a few seconds at best."

"Then I might relapse again?" Marlena asked, uncertain if that would be such a bad thing. Real or not, that world was the only one she knew, and she felt safe there, despite the fact that she was killing off family and friends left and right, with the police on her trail.

"About the time that your 'killing spree' started in your head," Lexie replied, glancing down at the charts on her clipboard. "We began to administer several different experimental drugs into your system that were designed to help your mind begin to deconstruct the delusions, hence the murders of major character players in the delusions. Until recently, we hadn't found the right combination of drugs to keep you fully lucid, but now that we have, you should be able to recover."

"That means you could go home, Doc," John whispered, his eyes brimming with tears.

Marlena looked to Lexie for confirmation, and the doctor nodded. "As long as you continue to take your medication, we'd be able to release you. You could live a normal and healthy life again, Marlena. The way you used to, before all this happened."

"We'll be a family again, sweetheart," John said softly, gazing at her with such love that it made her heart ache, remembering the way she'd treated him recently... or the way she'd treated a figment of him in her imagination, anyway. "You, me, and the kids. And you won't believe how big Will has gotten, that boy keeps growing like a weed."

"How old is he?" she asked in a whisper, knowing that he probably wasn't really in the seventh grade. She'd never noticed until John brought it to her attention, but even Will had aged rapidly in her mind.

"Eight," John replied with a faint smile.

"So Sami is... twenty-six?" Marlena asked hesitantly, not sure if Sami had really been eighteen when Will was born or not.

"Yes," John responded with an understanding nod. "She and Eric are both twenty-six, Brady is twenty-three, Rex and Cassie are twenty-two and Belle is twenty."

"They're so close in age... Rex and Belle," Marlena murmured.

"Yeah," John said with a somber expression. "When Brady was only two, Isabella died suddenly."

"Was it still cancer?" Marlena asked.

"It was," John told her, his eyes flickering sadly at the thought of his ex-wife. "When Tony was killed in a car crash not too long after that, we... well, we were both alone and both hurting, and one thing led to another, and you wound up pregnant."

"The children must have been confused," Marlena mused, mostly to herself. Then again, this life was still so much easier and less complex for them than the other one had been, especially Sami and Eric.

"They were at first," John agreed. "Especially Sami and Eric, who were old enough to understand what was going on. They took Isabella's death pretty hard, and then when Belle was born, things just got more complicated. That's why we took things slow, to help the kids ease into the transition. We didn't get married until Belle was almost three, but when we did, we made it last. We've been together and happy ever since."

"Until I came here," Marlena said, her voice hitching slightly.

"I'd wait forever for you if I had to, Doc," John assured her. "You know that."

And she did know it, she could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. This man loved her, with all his heart, and she didn't need to ask if he had waited for her these past three years, she knew that he had.

_I can either accept what they've told me as the truth and try to get better, even if it is hard and painful and scary,_ she thought. _Or I can reject it and slip back into that other place, where I'm in control and where no one will look at me like I belong in a straight-jacket._

"You're my wife," John said softly. "I love you. Carrie, Sami, Eric, Brady, Rex, Cassie and Belle, they all love you, too. We need you, Doc."

Swallowing hard, Marlena made her decision. She looked up at Lexie, who was watching them with a tired smile on her face. "I want to go home," she announced to the doctor, and she felt John squeeze her hand supportively. "What do I have to do?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Two**

Sighing, John Brady pinched the bridge of his nose as he collapsed into the stiff leather chair, both physically and emotionally exhausted.

It was the day he'd always dreamed of, the glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial dark tunnel that the past three years of his life had been. Through the bad times, he had constantly looked forward to this, hoped for it, prayed for it, promised the kids that it would come despite his own doubts.

Marlena was not only coherent, but stable, and after a few days of observation, he would finally be able to take her home.

_Oh, Doc,_ he thought. _You don't know how long we've waited for this._

And the truth was, she really didn't know. She didn't know a lot of things, but they would just have to help her adjust to reality again, show patience and understanding when she got confused or scared. It wasn't going to be easy, Lexie had reiterated that from the start, but John had faith that they could get through this, all of them, together.

As a family.

He had two other children by two other women, one of whom he had married and still missed all these years after her death, but it had always been Marlena for him. Practically from the moment they first met, he had known that she was the one for him, there was just something about her that mesmerized him.

The day she'd become his wife for the first time, he'd thought it was the happiest day of his life, but he'd learned as time went on that things could only get better, even if they had to get worse first, a sentiment that they'd put into their vows at their second wedding.

So many times over the past few years, he had looked back on their life together in sad reflection, and wanted to hang his head and cry. There was always hope, so Lexie told him each morning on his daily visits to see his wife at the sanitarium, but sometimes it was hard to believe that. The days had been long and exhausting, and painfully lonely, despite being surrounded by friends and family.

For the first year after Marlena had been committed, he had been in deep depression, feeling lost and confused, and he'd hated himself for wallowing in his own grief when his children needed him, but in the end it had been his children who got him through it.

Carrie and Eric had both moved away from Salem, to Israel and Los Angeles respectively, well before her breakdown, and Cassie had been a freshmen at NYU when it happened, but all three of them had been willing to move home again if he so much as gave the word.

He never had, because as tempting as it was to draw his children to him and keep them close, John knew they needed to live their own lives. Besides, he'd had Sami, Brady, Rex and Belle, all of whom still remained in Salem, and that had been more than enough.

Those kids were his lifeline.

Out of all them, Belle had probably taken it the hardest, simply because she was the youngest at seventeen, an age where she needed her mother to help her get ready for dates with her boyfriend Philip, to take her prom dress shopping and come to watch her cheer at the football games at school. She had gone through a selfish and angry phase for the first six months or so, during which John had been at wit's end with what to do with her, but Sami had eventually stepped in and gotten through to her little sister.

After that Belle had done everything she could to try and make life easier for John, including enrolling at Salem University after finishing up high school, despite his urging for her to choose whatever college she wanted. She had been adamant about them being together as a family, and Brady had confided to him that he thought Belle needed the security more than the others because she was the most emotionally weak, so John hadn't argued when she informed him that she was going to live at home with him instead of in a dorm.

Though he'd never said anything to the kids, they knew that without Marlena the house always seemed empty to him somehow.

Maybe it was because they were men, and men had some primal urge to keep their emotions bottled up, but Rex and Brady had always been composed on the surface. Underneath, though, they had both been suffering just as much as the rest of the family, particularly Rex.

While all of them were wrestling with confusion, guilt, fear, frustration and anger, normal reactions according to Lexie and Dr. Harris, the family therapist who had helped them adjust during that first year, Rex had to deal with the painful knowledge that Marlena hadn't even believed he was really her son. The delusion that she had simply carried him and Cassie, that they were really the children of Kate and 'Roman', had weighed heavily on his shoulders for the past year or two.

But it was Sami whose strength continued to awe John to this day, because despite how busy she was at Basic Black, despite having a husband and a son to take care of, she still managed to find the time to step into the maternal role of the family in Marlena's absence. She had kept the family from falling apart, really, whether it was simply checking up on him and her siblings on a daily basis or organizing family dinners every Friday night and enforcing a perfect attendance rule.

Though she was technically his middle daughter, Sami was the first child he'd ever witnessed being born, and sometimes when he looked at her now he was stunned at what a beautiful and capable woman that breathtaking little baby had grown into. He didn't really know why she was able to deal with Marlena's illness better than the rest of her siblings, maybe it was just that Brady strength that shone through so brilliantly in her, but he supposed it had a lot to do with the fact that she had been forced to grow up at a very young age, when she got pregnant with Will.

Whatever the reason, John knew without a doubt that he could never had made it through the past three years without her.

Behind him, the door opened, and he looked up as Lexie Carver stepped into the room, making her way to sit down at the desk in front of him. She placed her clipboard down, then folded her hands and looked at him expectantly, her dark eyes studying him with sympathetic understanding.

"How do you feel?" she finally asked.

"Excited, relieved," John answered, running a hand through his dark hair. "And nervous, too."

"That's to be expected," Lexie assured him with a nod. "This is going to be difficult, John, not just for Marlena, but for you and the kids, too."

"The past few years have been nothing but hard on them," John sighed.

"I know," Lexie replied gently. "Rex has been so mixed up, it breaks my heart to see my nephew hurting like that."

"Me, too," John murmured.

Though Rex and Cassie were his stepchildren, twins born out of Marlena's relationship with Tony DiMera back during the time that John had been married to Isabella, he had always considered them his and made sure that they knew he loved them just as much as he did Carrie, Sami, Brady and Belle. The twins had been so young when Tony was killed in a car accident that they didn't really remember him, but Lexie and their grandfather Stefano, the head of the Salem-base computer company DiMera Tech, had always done their best to help them feel close to their deceased father.

"He worries about you, you know," Lexie said seriously. "They all do."

"I know," John responded, nodding grimly. "I worry about them, too."

"Of course, you do," Lexie stated with a tired smile. "You're their father, that's your job."

"I am their father," John agreed somberly. "But sometimes I feel like they've been forced to take care of me instead of the other way around. Belle is still living at home because the kids don't want me to be alone, the boys find excuses to drop in on me at the station, and Sami keeps finding reasons to get us all together for family activities."

"They do those things as much for their own needs as for yours, John," Lexie reminded him patiently. "And family is important in situations like this. That's how you've all made it through these past few years, depending on one another and supporting each other. Not just you and the kids, but your parents, Bo, Hope and the boys, too."

"Yeah," John agreed. His parents had been a source of unwavering strength for him through the rough patches, and his nephew Shawn had definitely been there for Belle and Brady when they needed him, while little Zack was always good for cheering him up when he was feeling down.

But the best support came at the station, where he worked alongside not only his little brother Bo and his sister-in-law Hope, but his best friend Abe, as well. All three of them had been there whenever he needed them, day or night, without complaint, and for that he would be eternally grateful to them all.

"We've been blessed," John mused aloud. "Not only in our family, but in our friends, too. I'm never going to be able to thank you enough for all you've done for us, Lexie."

"It's my job to help Marlena get better," Lexie replied. "And it's the least I could do to help make this all a little easier on you and the kids, considering you're practically family."

John smiled faintly at the young doctor, touched by her words. She was much younger than her half-brother Tony had been, so she was still fairly young when Rex and Cassie were born, but she'd never been lacking in her duties as an aunt.

Her marriage to Dr. Brandon Carver, Abe's only son, had brought her even closer to the family, and when their son Theo was born, John had been honored when they asked him to be the baby's godfather. Though Rex and Cassie considered Shawn Brady to be their cousin, even if it was only be marriage, they'd been excited about Theo's birth, and Rex had even agreed to baby-sitting his little cousin a few times when Lexie needed a break and Brandon was busy at the emergency room.

"This is for real, then?" John asked anxiously, despite the fact that he knew Lexie would never give him false hope. "She can really come home, right? This isn't a dream?"

"No, John, it's not a dream," Lexie promised, smiling wearily. "Marlena can go home, but we'll need to keep her here for a few days, maybe a week, to keep her under observation, just to make sure that the drug is working and that there are no adverse side-affects."

"Okay," John nodded, then paused, biting his lip. "She won't have to stay in her room, will she?"

He'd seen the frantic look in his wife's eyes as she looked around at the white, padded walls, and he didn't think that she could survive a week living in there now that she was lucid without going crazy all over again.

"No," Lexie answered. "We'll get her set up in one of the recovery rooms, I think she'll be much more comfortable there."

"And we can still visit her?" John inquired. "The kids and I? Maybe Will if Sami and Lucas feel he's up to it?"

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea to bring Will," Lexie hesitated. "I know Sami agonized over the decision not to bring him in the past, so it's probably best if that reunion waits until after Marlena's release. It was difficult for Sami and Lucas to explain Marlena's illness to him when she was committed, and he was very confused, so it's impossible to know how he'll react to Marlena coming home after so long since he was so young when she got sick."

"You've got a point," John agreed with a sigh. "Best to ease him into it, right?"

"Tell Sami to give me a call tomorrow," Lexie instructed. "I'd like to sit down with both her and Lucas to talk about how to go about things with Will, since this is such a delicate situation. It's not going to be easy for him to adjust."

"I know," John said gravely. "He's a strong little boy, but this illness is a hard thing to wrap his mind around. Sometimes I don't even understand, I ask myself why us, why Marlena, why our family, so I'm sure Will's asked the same questions, too. But he's such a perceptive kid, he doesn't talk about his Grandma Marlena to Sami, he knows it would upset her, so he talks to his father, except Lucas doesn't know how to explain things any better than the rest of us."

"He's a good father," Lexie observed. "And a good husband, too."

"Yeah," John agreed with a grunt. "He is."

He had liked Lucas Roberts well enough when the kids were younger, despite the playboy reputation that the he'd gained in his teenage years. Since he was not only the son of Bill Horton, but Victor's stepson, Lucas had been a regular playmate for the twins during their childhood, and he and Eric had developed a rivalry that continued to this day, even if it had softened to a more friendly manner.

It was Sami's relationship with Lucas that had always amused John, though, because those two had been little terrors to one another. While most little girls might start crying if a boy pulled her hair on the playground, Sami had taken to kicking Lucas in the shins, which only seemed to fascinate the boy, so he was constantly tormenting her as a child. The two of them had thoroughly enjoying terrorizing one another, and more than once Sami had come home from the park covered in dirt only to explain that Lucas had put a frog in her hair, so she bit him.

In some ways, those had been simpler days, because for a little while John could pretend that his little girl was never going to grow up, that she was never going to start liking boys, but it had been inevitable.

When he was thirteen, Lucas had started to attend a prestigious military boarding school out of state, returning to Salem for the holidays and summer break, and that's when the real trouble started. When he was back in town on break, he spent most of his time with his family, either enjoying the time with Kate, Victor and little Philip at the Kiriakis mansion, or visiting with his father and half-siblings Mike and Jenn over at the Horton house where his stepmother Laura always had fresh cookies ready when he came over, but summer break was what changed things.

One day out the blue, really, Lucas had arrived back in town, and John had been there to witness the spark of interest that passed between him and Sami firsthand. Since Eric and Rex were both at their soccer practices, Brady was at baseball practice and Carrie was at her summer job down at the pool where she was working as a lifeguard, John had decided to take the girls for ice cream while Marlena ran some errands.

As much as he loved playing with his sons, spending time with his daughters was always a treat, because the three girls were so animated in everything that they did. Although Cassie and Belle were closer in age, it was Sami and Cassie who were closer in temperament, and at twelve and eight the age difference didn't really matter that much anyway, so the two of them had brought a smile to his face as they excitedly babbled on about some new movie they wanted to see, while Belle was too engrossed in her ice cream sundae to notice.

There had been a jingle when the door opened, and in had walked Bill Horton with his seventeen year-old daughter Jennifer and fourteen year-old son Lucas, who he had just picked up from the train station. He and Kate had agreed that he could have their son for his first weekend home since Sunday would be Mike's twenty-first birthday, and Jennifer had gone with him to the train station to pick up her little brother.

John had waved them over, inviting them to join them since the large booth had plenty of room for three more, and had proceeded to ask Lucas how his final exams went, before settling into conversation with Bill and Jennifer about Mike's decision to apply to medical school after graduation. In the midst of their discussion, Lucas had turned to eye the girls appraisingly, a small smirk making its way onto his lips as he zeroed in on Sami, and made some snarky comment about wondering how she'd managed to leave her Barbie dolls at home.

Bill had groaned, rolling his eyes, and opened his mouth to lecture his son on his behavior, when Sami beat him to it, simply snorting and shaking her head so that her soft blond hair fall across her face. John couldn't remember what her answer had been exactly, only that it had been so glib, and so perfectly Sami, that Lucas had been effectively silenced as he stared at her like he'd never seen anything quite like her before.

And thus was the beginning of a beautiful, albeit strange, friendship between Sami and Lucas.

For the next few years, whenever Lucas came home from boarding school, he and Sami were joined at the hip, whether it was hanging out at the Pub, playing the newest video games that Stefano sent copies of, swimming in the pool at the Kiriakis mansion, or just watching television together. By the time that Lucas graduated and moved home to Salem for good, accepting a rather cushy job at Titan from his stepfather Victor, he and Sami were rarely apart. They were even able to hang out at work once Sami was given an internship at Titan the summer after she turned sixteen.

Still, it had never really occurred to John that their friendship might one day take a romantic turn. Lucas had always been a bit of a playboy, dating one girl after the next, mostly models who worked with Titan Publishing, and Sami had dated the occasional boy from school, never really that interested in anyone in particular. Their relationship had been so natural, so instinctive, that it had seemed almost sibling-like at times, but things had changed between them somehow the night of Sami's junior prom, because the next thing anyone in town knew the two of them were dating.

While John doubted he'd ever know the full story of what happened that night, and he wasn't sure he wanted to, the fact that a month later Sami had discovered she was pregnant didn't leave a whole lot to the imagination.

_Sometimes it's hard to believe it hasn't even been ten years,_ John thought with a sigh. His little girl had grown up so much, so fast, that it seemed like she'd gone from a kid to an adult in the blink of an eye. Lucas had been the same way, just a boy one minute and a man the next, so it was clear that the two of them had helped one another along the way, left their childhood behind them and walked hand-in-hand into a new and daunting life as parents.

"Do you want to call the kids and give them the good news?" Lexie offered, gesturing to the phone on her desk.

"No," John declined, shaking his head. "I think this is something I want to tell them in person, all of them at once. So we can sit down and discuss this as a family."

"That's probably a good idea," Lexie conceded evenly. "They're going to have a lot of questions."

"Got any advice on what to tell them?" John asked with a weak smile. "I feel like I'm stumbling myself, I don't have a clue how to help them get okay with this."

"Honestly?" Lexie replied. "Just keep talking to them, keep the lines of communication open. That's going to be important in the coming days, because you're all going to be feeling some anxiety and frustration as you help Marlena reintegrate back into her life, maybe even a little anger, and that's perfectly normal, but you've got to be honest with yourselves and with one another. It's okay to feel all those things and they need you to not only tell them that, but to show them that it's okay."

"Lead by example, huh?" John sighed.

"Exactly," Lexie said with an encouraging nod.

"And if it's obvious to them that I don't have a clue of what to do?"

"Then you'll all be clueless together," Lexie told him reassuringly. "I wish I could tell you that everything will work out smoothly, that there won't be any kinks in the road ahead, but I can't. There's no handbook for how to deal with recovering from schizophrenia, John, for patients or their families. The best anyone can do is just take it one day at a time."

"You're right," John blew out a long hiss of air, rubbing his jaw wearily.

"Of course I'm right," Lexie retorted lightly. "I'm the doctor here, remember? Don't worry, you'll do fine."

The intercom on her desk beeped, and she reached over to press the button. "Yes?"

"Dr. Carver?" John recognized the voice of Lexie's secretary Brenda, a regular face on his daily visits to see his wife. "Mrs. Brady is out of the showers and dressed now, waiting in meeting room three."

"Thank you, Brenda," Lexie said, removing her hand from the intercom and rising to her feet. "Ready to go try and help Marlena remember pieces of her life?"

"Yeah," John responded, following her to the door. "I'm ready."


	3. Chapter 3

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Three**

A pair of bright headlights filled his rearview mirror as Rex DiMera put his Jeep into park and turned off the ignition.

Opening the door, he stepped down onto the driveway, the tread of his boots crunching the snow underneath, and turned his attention to the sleek blue Mercedes-Benz that had pulled into the driveway of the Brady house behind him as his older sister climbed out.

Decked out in a chic black business suit that even Rex could appreciate as being stylish, her golden hair pulled up into a sophisticated twist, Sami Roberts was the picture-perfect image of a successful executive.

At least until her high heels slipped on the icy driveway and she banged her elbow against her car, cursing under her breath as she fumbled with the lock.

"Long day at the office, Sis?" Rex asked sympathetically.

"You have no idea," Sami sighed wearily, pulling her jacket around her tighter and trudging up the driveway. "My head hurts and my feet are killing me. All I want to do is go home and take a nice, long bubblebath and then sleep for the next twenty-four hours."

"You and me both," Rex sighed, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek as she reached his side. "You'd think that with me being a genius and all, I'd be a natural at helping Grandfather run DiMera Tech, but it's harder than he makes it look."

Sami laughed, a light and airy sound, and he luxuriated in the familiarity of it. "Stefano makes everything look easy, it's part of his charm."

"You wouldn't think he was so charming if you had to work with him," Rex grumbled, making a face, but they both knew his complaints were only halfhearted.

He really did love his grandfather, and Stefano was a self-made business man who had built his computer empire from scratch. Despite the fact that he had earned a college degree by the time he was only twenty years old, Rex knew that he still had a lot to learn about the business world, and who better to learn the ropes from than his grandfather?

"How did Will do on his math test today?" he asked as they started towards the front door together.

"He called me at work when he got to Jack and Jenn's house after school, he got an A, thanks to his fantastic tutor," Sami replied with a grateful smile. "Lucas and I really ought to be paying you, you know."

"I like helping him," Rex assured her, making his way up the slick steps and offering her his hand to make sure she didn't slip in her heels. "And elementary school math isn't exactly rocket science, so it's not like it's a lot of work for me to do it."

"Rex, rocket science isn't a lot of work for you," Sami retorted, rolling her cerulean blue eyes. "By the time you were fifteen, you'd already built your own computer. NASA should be hiring you to come and do their jobs for them."

"You're just jealous because I never had to study to make the honor roll," Rex quipped, opening the front door.

"Please," Sami snorted, stepping past him into the warmth of the house they had grown up in. "You're looking at the Vice President of Basic Black Fashions, remember? I'd say I did alright for myself, honor roll or no honor roll."

"Can't argue with that," Rex agreed with a smile, slipping off his coat and then reaching over to help her out of her own.

"Anybody home?" Sami called out.

"In here," came their little sister Belle's voice from the living room.

Rex took hung their jackets up on the coat rack, then followed Sami into the other room, where they found Belle and Brady sitting in the two recliners facing the couch and drinking hot chocolate, the fire crackling behind them in the fireplace. While Brady was still dressed in dress pants and gray sweater, most likely the clothes he'd worn to work that day, Belle was already wearing her pajama pants and a purple baseball-tee, her feet covered in fuzzy purple slippers.

Obviously today was her light day when it came to her classes at Salem University.

"Dad's not home yet?" Sami asked, setting her purse down on the end table.

"He should be home any minute now," Belle informed them with a small smile. "He called about fifteen minutes ago to say he was starting the drive back."

"He didn't happen to say what he wanted to see us for, did he?" Sami inquired, dropping down onto the couch.

"Only that it's about Mom," Belle said with a shrug. Her face took on a nervous expression and she bit her lip. "You don't think it's bad news, do you? I mean, what if she got sicker or something?"

"If it was something like that, Dad would have told us," Brady assured her, tugging at the end of one of her braided pigtails affectionately. "He probably just wants to keep us updated with the progress on the experimental drugs they're giving her, that's all."

"Brady's right," Rex agreed, taking a seat next to Sami. "Don't get yourself all worked up about it."

"They're right," Sami told Belle, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "Besides, shouldn't you be getting all worked up about the special Valentine's Day plans Philip has in store for you this weekend?"

Belle's eyes lit up and she bolted upright eagerly. "You know what the surprise is, don't you?" she demanded.

"Who, me?" Sami feigned innocence, her lips curving up into a satisfied smirk. "How would I know anything about that?"

"Because you just happen to be Philip's sister-in-law," Belle replied, not buying into it. "And he just happens to adore you. He tells you everything, so I know he told you what his plans are."

"Maybe he did," Sami conceded with a shrug. "But you'll just have to wait and see."

Belle made a frustrated noise, sinking back into the cushions with a groan. "Sami," she whined, and both Rex and Brady winced at the sound. "That is so unfair!"

"Mmm," Sami murmured with a smile, then proceeded to change the subject. "How were your classes today, Belle? Did you do well on that physics lab you were dreading?"

"I think I passed it," Belle replied with a sigh, knowing it was futile to try and pester the answers out of their sister.

"That for Professor Thompkin's class?" Rex asked curiously, remembering how easy that class had been for him, and deciding Belle probably wouldn't like him very much for sharing that.

"Yes," Belle said, making a face. "I don't know what possessed me to take physics. I don't even like science all that much."

"You took it because you needed the credit," Brady pointed out. "That's why."

"Don't remind me," Belle groaned. "I don't want to talk about school anymore. School is evil. Let's talk about something else, okay? Anything else, I'm desperate."

"We can talk about the new summer line sketches," Sami offered.

"No!" Brady and Rex both cried quickly, knowing all too well what it was like once the two girls got into their 'creative zone' as Belle called it. "Belle is an intern at Basic Black," Brady added. "Can't you talk about that stuff at work?"

"Fine," Sami said, barely suppressing a smile. "Come by my office when you clock in tomorrow afternoon, Belle. I think you'll love some of swimsuit patterns we're considering, and it's always nice to have someone your age's opinion."

"You say that like you're decades older than her instead of just six years," Brady snorted, shaking his head.

"No, I say that like I'm a mother instead of just a twenty-six year old woman," Sami corrected. "I'm not about to traumatize my son by wearing some of the glorified pieces of string that college girls wear down at the beach."

"I'm sure Lucas wouldn't mind if you did," Belle giggled.

"I don't need to hear that," Brady objected, glaring at their little sister.

"Yeah, me neither," Rex piped up with a grimace. "No guy likes to think about anyone looking at their sister that way, Belle."

"I have an eight year old son, remember?" Sami drawled. "It's a little late to be defending my honor."

"Tell me about it," Brady grunted.

What Rex didn't bother reminding Sami of was that they had, in fact, defended her honor when they'd found out she was pregnant. Of course, he had only been thirteen, and Brady fourteen, but they had been all for holding Lucas down while Eric beat the crap out of him.

Needless to say, that idea hadn't gone over too well with Sami, or with Marlena, who had lectured the boys on how they needed to let go of their grudge against Lucas, for Sami's sake. She understood that they were angry, that they felt like breaking every bone in his body for so much as touching their sister, much less getting her pregnant, but all their negativity was doing was hurting Sami.

Properly ashamed, they'd tried their best to learn to get along with Lucas after that, and to their surprise it hadn't been nearly as hard as they had thought it would be. Before he'd knocked up Sami, Rex and Brady had both liked the older boy, he had a cool car and girls fawned all over him, so once they realized it was alright to like him again, things had smoothed themselves over nicely.

Eric had been more difficult, which wasn't much of a surprise considering how protective he had always been of his twin sister, and he and Lucas had been rivals for as long as anyone could remember. Eventually, though, he'd seen how much Lucas loved Sami, and how much their sister loved Lucas, and he'd begrudgingly done his best to try and be civil towards his new brother-in-law.

Beside him, Sami yawned, stretching her arms over her head.

"Tired?" Brady asked.

"Exhausted," Sami confirmed with a nod, reaching up a hand to fumble with the clip holding her hair up. "And your fiancé's probably not doing much better, we had some problems with material today, so we need our models back in again tomorrow for refitting."

Her fingers curled around the clip and tugged, but it wouldn't come free, and a scowl crossed her face.

"Here," Rex said, reaching up to remove the hairclip for her.

"Thank you," Sami sighed, shaking her hair so that her blond locks fell over her shoulders.

"So Nicole's going to be grumpy when I pick her up for dinner later," Brady groaned. "Great."

"You're going out tonight?" Rex asked. "Does that mean you're going to stay at Nicole's for the night?"

"Probably, yeah," Brady nodded. "So if you want to have Mimi over, you'd have the loft to yourselves, I won't be home until after work tomorrow."

"I might give her a call, then," Rex replied thoughtfully. He hadn't been able to spend much alone time with his girlfriend these past few weeks, he'd been so busy with work, and between her classes at Salem University and her shifts waitressing at the Brady Pub, they hadn't found much time to be together.

And even though he had to be at work early the next morning and Mimi had an early class, he was seriously considering taking Brady up on his offer. He had moved into the downtown loft with his stepbrother after graduating two years ago, and they'd been roommates ever since. Despite their different lifestyles, they never really had much to disagree about, having shared a room growing up had taught them a long time ago how to compromise.

"Just don't let her oversleep, okay?" Belle said, rolling her eyes. "She can't afford to be late to Professor Hamilton's class again."

"I'll make sure she leaves on time, Belle," Rex promised with a faint smile. It had been awkward, to say the least, when he and Mimi first started dating, because she had been Belle's best friend since before they could walk. Most of his life, he hadn't really paid much attention to Mimi Lockhart, but around her senior year of high school he'd started to notice her in a different light, and he'd discovered that she'd always had a secret crush on him, one that not even Belle knew about.

They'd walked on eggshells around Belle with their relationship those first few months, because she was terrified that they would break up and she'd be forced to choose between her brother and her best friend, but as soon as it had become clear to everyone in Salem that their relationship was going to last, Belle had been thrilled about it.

And ever since she had been trying to drag them on double dates with her and Philip.

Just then, the sound of the front door opening carried into the room, and they all looked up as John Brady stepped into the hall, stomping his boots on the mat to get the snow off their soles. "Hi, Daddy," Belle called out as he slipped off his jacket and hung it up.

"Hi, Sweet Pea," John replied, entering the living room. His gaze swept around the room, pausing briefly on each of them, and he smiled wearily. "It's always a treat to see you kids all in one room now that you're all grown up."

"Tinkerbelle here still has a few years before she's full grown," Brady said dryly, earning an elbow to the ribs from Belle.

"Besides, you see us every Friday night for dinner, remember?" Sami commented with a laugh.

"Speaking of which, it's your turn to cook this week," Rex reminded her smugly. "I'm thinking ribs, how about you, Brady?"

"Reading my mind, man," Brady agreed.

"You'll eat what I tell you to eat," Sami retorted with a stern glare that didn't quite hide the smile tugging at her lips. "Or you won't eat at all."

John chuckled, easing himself down into his favorite chair, a deep red leather recliner that had been a fixture in the house for as long as Rex could remember. When they were little, he and Cassie would climb up into that chair together to watch television while Sami, Eric and Brady got the spacious couch, because they were older and that was their right, or so they claimed. Marlena would always tell them to take turns and let the twins and Belle have the couch, but Rex had always liked sitting in John's chair.

It made him feel special, somehow, to sit in 'Dad's' chair.

And he did truly consider John to be his father, regardless of blood or genetics. The man had raised him and Cassie as equals with his own children, never showing favoritism, and had gone out of his way to make sure that they all had everything they could ever need growing up.

He was the kind of father that Rex liked to think his real father, who had been killed in a car crash when he was hardly more than a baby, would have chosen for him.

"I appreciate you kids all coming over on such short notice," John said, rubbing his chin. "I know you're leading busy lives."

"We could never be too busy for you, Dad," Sami insisted. "You know that."

"Yeah," John nodded. "I do." He sighed heavily, looking down at his hands for a long moment, and Rex felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. Whatever it was that had led John to call them and ask them to meet him at the house, it was obviously very serious, and his siblings knew it, too. Brady stiffened, Belle shrunk back into her chair as if trying to burrow into it, and Sami's jaw tightened in apprehension.

Rex swallowed hard, licking his lips, and glanced over at his older sister, catching her gaze for a moment. An unspoken understanding passed between them, the two children who had carried the most of this burden all these years. While Rex was plagued with self-pity and fits of anger, stricken that his mother could ever believe that he wasn't truly hers, Sami had taken it upon herself to be the cornerstone of their family, and he admired her for that.

Even when she was hurting, when she was just as frustrated and angry and confused and scared as the rest of them, Sami always had strength to spare. She always had, even when they were kids. If they'd been watching a scary movie, she would let him hide his face in her hair even as she clenched the armrest so tightly that her knuckles went white, all the while telling him that it was okay, that it was just a movie.

She was a great big sister.

"What happened at the sanitarium, Dad?" Sami asked evenly, the only one who seemed able to speak.

"Is Mom getting worse?" Belle whispered in a small, fragile voice, showing the delicate girl she really was, that losing their mother had turned her into.

"No, baby, she's not," John assured them. "In fact, the reason I brought you all here is that I've got some good news to share with you, and I wanted to do it in person."

"Did she respond to any of the audio stimulants today?" Brady asked eagerly.

"Better than that," John replied, and Rex's heart skipped a beat anxiously. John took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, his hands trembling as he cracked his knuckles. "I spent most of the afternoon with your mother, and we had a nice, long talk..."

It took a moment or two for the implications of that to sink in, to reach a full understanding of what that meant, of what it had to mean, but when it did, emotions swept through the room uncontrollably.

"You mean... Mom's awake?" Belle asked hoarsely, choking on a sob. "Mommy's okay?"

"Yeah, baby, that's what I mean," John confirmed, his own voice shaking as he nodded. "The new drugs are working, she's lucid and coherent, and as long as she keeps taking her medication, she'll stay that way."

"Oh my God!" Belle shrieked, launching herself into John's arms, and he laughed as he embraced his youngest child tightly, tears streaming down his face.

Rex was stunned, so shocked he couldn't even open his mouth, much less speak or move.

His mother was awake.

So many times over the past three years had he prayed for such a miracle. So many times he had lain away at night, unable to sleep, staring at his ceiling and wondering what their family had done to warrant such suffering.

He'd missed her more than he'd ever dreamed possible, everyday and in everything he did. There was so much he'd needed her guidance on, so much he'd wished he could have gotten her advice on. Back when he was still in college, he'd hungered for the brownies she used to make for him while he was cramming for a test during high school.

As hard to believe as it was, he'd even missed her nagging him about cleaning his room and wearing jeans that didn't hang off of his hips.

Plain and simple, he'd just missed his mother.

"Are you serious?" Brady asked in disbelief. "She's really okay?"

"That's what the doctors are telling us," John responded with a smile.

"So she can come home, right?" Belle asked anxiously, clutching his hands. "We can bring her home?"

"Lexie wants to keep her there for a week," John explained. "Just to make sure that there aren't any side-affects from the drugs, and she's ours for good."

Belle burst into tears all over again, and John stroked her hair soothingly, while Brady just blinked, shaking his head, murmuring, "Unbelievable..."

"Sami?" John said gently, and Rex looked over to see that she had been staring off into space, a distant expression on her face. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine," Sami replied, and despite her efforts to hide it, it was clear that was not fine, not at all.

Rex knew exactly how she felt.

As much of a high as it was to think about Marlena coming home, to know that their prayers had been answered at long last, he was terrified of what came next. It had taken him a long time to come to terms with her illness, to accept that his mother might never come back to them, that she might never be in her right mind again.

He'd woken up this morning thinking that today was a day like any other, but in the course of just a few short moments, his life had been turned upside down all over again.

How would Marlena act around them? Would she even remember anything about them, or would she treat them like strangers, or worse, like the people she thought they were inside of her delusions? If she didn't remember anything at all, were they supposed to sit down and spill their entire life story in detail just so she wouldn't be as confused?

And what if she got sick again? What if the medication stopped working and she started to relapse and this time her illness got even worse than it had been?

What if she had another episode like the one where she'd ranted that he wasn't her son, that he was a freak of nature, a twisted creation of an evil man with a vendetta against the Brady family?

He wasn't sure he could take that again.

The day that she had been committed to the sanitarium, he'd gone out and gotten drunk at the Cheatin' Heart, where if you had a college ID that said you were a junior, they automatically assumed you were twenty-one. He'd been so hammered that he hadn't even realized he was sobbing into his drink, and he certainly hadn't noticed when Lucas Roberts showed up behind him.

Apparently, Jack Deveraux, a friend of Sami's who just happened to be married to Lucas' sister Jennifer, had been in the bar that night, and he'd called Lucas after seeing the shape that Rex was in.

Despite the fact that he was a recovering alcoholic and avoided bars like the plague, Lucas had come all the way from the penthouse downtown to pick him up. He hadn't criticized him or lectured him, and he hadn't offered condolences or tried to get him to talk about it, either. He'd simply seen him safely back to his dorm and advised him to take some aspirin as soon as he woke for the monster hangover he was going to have in the morning.

And he'd never brought it up after that, for which Rex was grateful. That night hadn't been his shining moment.

"Look, I know this isn't going to be easy, for any of us," John began seriously. "Your Mom is going to be really confused for a while, and it's going to take time for her to adjust. In the meantime, that means we're all going to be getting a bit frustrated at times, maybe even angry, but that's okay. No one is expecting you to just be okay with this overnight, it's going to take time."

"It's already taken up three years of our lives, Dad," Sami replied tersely, angry tears welling in her eyes despite her attempts to blink them back.

"I know," John said gently, looking around the room at all of them. "I know how hard this is, believe me, I do. I'm so mixed up right now that I don't know what to feel. One minute I'm so relieved that she's even lucid, the next I'm angry that she can't distinguish between what's real and what's imaginary. I understand that you have mixed feelings about her coming home, I do, too, but we can get through this. I know we can, as long as we stick together, as a family."

For a long moment silence fell over the room, all of them taking in what he was saying and trying to come to terms with the conflicting emotions they were feeling. John was quiet for a while, letting them sort through their thoughts, before he continued.

"I think it might be good for you kids to come and visit her over the coming week, maybe one at a time, to give her a chance to let herself get reacquainted with us," he said evenly. "I know none of you have ever liked going to see her there, it's painful, but I think it'd do her good, and do you good, too." He paused, clasping his hands together in front of him, then sighed. "If you don't think you're ready or you just don't think you can do it yet, then that's fine, your Mom's going to understand. She's scared, too, just like the rest of us."

There was another stretch of silence in the room, and Rex shifted uneasily, keeping his gaze lowered to the floor. The truth was, he didn't want to go, and he felt bad for that, but he wasn't ready to face his mother, he wasn't ready to take the chance that she was just going to reject him all over again.

"I'll go."

Rex looked at Sami in surprise as she lifted her chin, taking on an almost defiant tilt, daring anyone to question whether or not she could handle this daunting emotional obstacle.

"Okay," John replied steadily. "How about tomorrow after you get off work, then?"

Rex thought that was awfully soon, and knew that if it had been him, he would have wanted longer to prepare himself, but Sami simply nodded, a determined gleam in her eyes. "Tomorrow's fine," she agreed. "I've got a fitting to supervise in the morning, but I'll take a half day and be there at around three."

"Good," John said, some of the tension in his shoulders easing with relief. "Thank you, Sami, I appreciate that."

"I'll go on Thursday," Brady offered, though he didn't seem to excited at the prospect.

"Me, too," Rex added, and his stepbrother gave him a grateful look. "We'll go together."

"Can I go with you, Dad?" Belle asked, biting her lip.

"Sure thing, honey," John promised, squeezing her hand. "Just let me know what day is good for you, and I'll get Bo or Abe to cover my shift if I have to." He sighed, shaking his head a bit. "Look, I know this whole situation is uncomfortable, I get that, but I'm really proud of you kids for how well you've dealt with it so far. You've all been so strong and I... and I..."

He closed his eyes, swallowing hard, the faintest quiver touching his bottom lip. No one commented on it, even though they all noticed, averting their eyes to allow him a moment of privacy to regain his composure.

"I don't know what I would have done without you," John managed at last, with tears stinging in his eyes.

"Yeah, well, we don't know what we would have done without you, either, Dad," Brady told him somberly. "Right, guys?"

"Right," they chorused in perfect unison, drawing a small smile from John.

"Well," Sami said at last, clearing her throat. "I don't know about you all, but I'm starving, and knowing Lucas he just had a pizza delivered to the penthouse, so I'm going to raid your refrigerator, Dad. In exchange, Belle and I will cook you up a nice, home cooked dinner."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to let Belle help?" Brady asked skeptically. "The Poison Control Center is closed by now."

"Hey," Belle protested, throwing a pillow at him. "I'll have you know I haven't given anyone food poisoning in months!"

Despite himself, Rex laughed. "That's because no one is crazy enough to let you cook."

"Poor Philip," Brady quipped. "It's a good thing he's rich, because if he marries Belle, he's going to have to hire a chef."

"I don't know what you're even complaining about, Brady," Belle scowled. "Aren't you going out to dinner with Nicole?"

"Speaking of which," Brady said, looking at his watch. "I should get going."

"Drive carefully," John advised grimly.

"I will, Dad," Brady promised, hugging him. He then proceeded to make his rounds, kissing Belle and Sami good-bye, then stopping in front of Rex to clap him on the shoulder. "See you tomorrow, man. Tell Mimi I send my love."

"Will do," Rex agreed with a sarcastic salute.

Once he was gone, Sami started handing out orders, giving everyone a task to help get dinner ready as quickly as possible, and Rex was half-insulted, half-amused to find that his job was to make sure the water for the pasta boiled.

Obviously she hadn't forgotten the time when he tried to make macaroni and cheese when he was twelve and accidentally set the countertop on fire when he let a dishtowel get too close to the burner.

_Mom was furious,_ Rex thought with a silent chuckle, remembering the frantic look on her face when she came running into the kitchen, alerted by Cassie's shrieks.

His smile faded, though, when he realized that Marlena didn't remember that day at all, much less the fact that she had banned him from cooking for an entire year.

She didn't even remember that he was her son.

Sighing, Rex shook his head, pushing such depressing thoughts out of his head.

Thursday was going to be the longest day of his life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Four**

The elevator chimed, slowing to a halt as it reached the designated floor, and the heavy doors slid back to reveal the dimly lit hallway.

Shifting the strap of her newsboy style briefcase over her shoulder, Sami Roberts made her way down the hall to the door marked by the elegant silver number engraved into the dark wood. She pulled her keys out of her purse and was about to unlock the door when she heard laughing from inside.

Frowning, she glanced down at her watch and noted that it was almost eleven o'clock on a school night, well past Will's bedtime.

_And he has a spelling test tomorrow, _she thought with a groan.

As if her day hadn't been long enough already.

Shoving the key into the keyhole, she turned the lock, not oblivious to the sudden scrambling taking place on the other side of the door. By the time she twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open, she wasn't surprised to find her husband reading to her son, who was lying on the couch in his blue X-men pajamas.

"Hi," she called, closing the door to the penthouse behind her.

"Sami, baby," Lucas said with a warm, innocent smile. "I didn't hear you come in. We were just reading a bedtime story, right, buddy?"

Will nodded empathetically, forcing a yawn that Sami saw right through.

"Shouldn't you be doing that in his bedroom?" she asked skeptically.

"Normally, yes," Lucas agreed. "But I thought it would be okay to do it out here just this once."

"Mmm," Sami murmured, drawing her lips together in a thin line. Without another word, she walked across the room and picked up the remote from the coffee table in front of them. Turning towards the big-screen television, she pushed the power button, and the logo for the new racing video game that Stefano had sent last week flickered onto the screen.

"Busted," Will muttered under his breath, folding his little arms over his chest.

"Well, we are now, buddy," Lucas sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Baby, I can explain..."

"Don't bother," Sami told him, rolling her eyes. "Will, sweetie, run on upstairs to bed, okay? We'll be up to tuck you in after I talk to Daddy for a little bit."

"Okay," Will agreed, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch and sliding to the ground. "Can I get a bedtime story for real?"

"Sure thing, buddy," Lucas promised, ruffling his brown hair affectionately. "Mommy and I will be right up, so you go ahead and choose a book, alright?"

Will nodded eagerly, racing across the living room and up the carpeted staircase leading to the second floor. Sami watched him until he disappeared from sight, a tired smile touching her lips. Sometimes it was hard to believe her baby was already eight years old, it seemed like just yesterday that her father-in-law Bill Horton had placed him in her arms in the delivery room.

_Where does the time go?_ she wondered with a sigh.

"Sami?" Lucas asked, his brow furrowing in concern as he looked at her. "You liked tired, baby. Are you okay?"

"It's been a long day," Sami answered, rubbing her temples. "We had a mix-up at work, so now we're behind schedule on the fittings for the spring show and we've had to reschedule for tomorrow morning, bright and early."

"Yeah, Mom told me," Lucas replied with a nod. "She called earlier while you were at your Dad's to tell you that she's going to spring for a catered breakfast at the office in the morning for the models, and she's ordering you some of those pastries you love so much from that French cafe you two eat at all the time."

Sami groaned, dropping down onto the couch beside him. "Your mother is trying to make me fat," she accused. "She knows I can't resist those."

"It's all part of her evil plan to take over the world," Lucas informed her with a smirk. "Today, she makes her business partner fatter than Anna Nicole Smith. Tomorrow, she takes on the White House."

Despite herself, Sami chuckled, imagining her mother-in-law going head-to-head with the President. It would certainly be an interesting sight to see, because Kate Kiriakis was a determined and stubborn business woman who very rarely lost an argument. That was part of the reason that Basic Black had done so well in the three years since they started the company, thanks to financial backing from Kate's husband Victor.

Back when she'd gotten pregnant with Will, Sami had still been an intern at Titan Publishing, where Lucas was a junior executive, and she knew that she owed a good deal of what she'd been able to achieve in life since then to Lucas' stepfather. Not only had he opened his home to her, inviting her to live in the mansion once she and Lucas decided to keep the baby and get married, but he had used his connections to allow her to finish her senior year early and then take college courses online from the mansion so she could take care of Will and still further her education.

While she wasn't the genius that her half-brother Rex was, she was still pretty smart, and with Henderson around during the day to help out and her young brother-in-law Philip more than happy to play with his nephew after school and on the weekends, Sami had been able to get her business degree fairly quickly.

After that, she had gone back to work at Titan for a while, as the Director of Imaging, but she'd still hungered for something more. So when Kate approached her about the idea of starting up their own design company, she had been eager to do it, and Victor had believed in them enough to hand over the nest egg they needed to get things started.

Of course, Sami always wondered if he hadn't just wanted some peace and quiet at work, and giving his wife a project of her own was certainly one way of getting it.

"So what did your Dad want?" Lucas inquired curiously, lifting a hand to absently finger the ends of her long, golden hair.

"To talk about Mom," Sam replied, her tumble of emotions on that subject resurfacing. "There's been a new development."

"Oh?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. "What kind of development?"

"Lucas..." Sami began softly, swallowing past the lump in her throat. "She's coming home."

"What?" Lucas cried in surprise, straightening immediately. "Are you serious? They're releasing her?"

Sami nodded, not sure how that news made her feel. "The experimental drugs they've been giving her have worked, she's lucid and stable," she announced quietly. "Daddy was with her all afternoon, he says she's almost her old self again. Lexie says she'll be able to come home next week."

"Wow," Lucas muttered, running a hand through his hair. "That's big news."

"Yeah," Sami agreed, troubled as she bit her lip absently. It wasn't that she didn't want her mother to come home, that was all any of them wanted, but she didn't know what to expect. She knew what her mother thought of her, knew the whole twisted history that Marlena had created for her in her delusionary world, and she didn't like it one bit. The lies and manipulation she could handle, but the idea that she would have ever kept Lucas from their son, that the two of them would have let their friendship get so twisted and full of bitterness, was terrifying.

Not to mention that the very thought of lusting after Austin made her sick.

"How are you holding up?" Lucas asked, staring at her appraisingly. "I know this can't be easy for you or your family."

"I don't know how I feel about it," Sami sighed. "I really don't. Part of me is so relieved that she's better, that she's not going to be stuck in that place any longer, but the rest of me is just so..."

"Scared?" Lucas finished knowingly, rubbing her back soothingly. "Yeah, I know. I would be, too, if I were in your shoes."

"Yeah."

"I don't blame you for being apprehensive about her being released," Lucas told her, his expression gentle and sympathetic. "I know how much it upset you to hear the things she's said about you while she's been sick."

"You mean about me being a scheming, cruel, manipulative bitch?" Sami replied sullenly.

"Well, you certainly aren't cruel and manipulative," Lucas defended her. "I don't know if I'd call you a 'bitch'. Temperamentally challenged, yes, but a bitch? Not my Goldilocks."

His old nickname for her, which he'd first started calling her when they were kids as a form of teasing and later had come to be a term of endearment between friends and then lovers, made her smile a little bit.

"And as for the scheming part, well, your scheming has always been for a good cause," Lucas said in amusement. "Remember when Vivian Alamain decided she wanted to seduce Victor, and you plowed her over in order to protect Mom? I don't think anyone had the guts to cross you after that."

"That woman deserved everything she got and then some," Sami muttered with a scowl. "And I did her husband a favor by videotaping her trying to blackmail Victor into sleeping with her. The man finally got a clue and dropped her like a bad habit."

"And Mom fawned all over you for a month," Lucas responded with a snort, shaking his head. "I swear if we hadn't been married, she would have wanted to adopt you after that."

"Can I help it if your mother has good taste?" Sami retorted, smirking faintly. She sighed heavily, leaning her head back against the couch. "Her delusions are just so unsettling, Lucas. I get upset just thinking about it sometimes, you know that. I can't even go see her without coming home a mess. How am I supposed to deal with having her home again?"

"I think you just have to take it one day at a time, baby," Lucas answered gently, lifting a hand to touch her hair reverently. "At least you have a week to prepare yourself before you see her, right?"

Sami cringed. "Actually," she groaned. "I told Daddy I'd go visit her tomorrow afternoon."

"Really?" Lucas said, giving her a concerned look. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"No," Sami admitted with a sigh. "But Lexie says it will help her adjust faster, if we visit her before she comes home, and Daddy was practically pleading for someone to volunteer, so..."

"So you volunteered."

"It means a lot to Daddy," Sami explained, shrugging. "And I didn't want Brady, Rex or Belle to feel like they had to go if they weren't ready."

"You're a really good big sister, you know that?" Lucas said seriously, his hand moving from her hair to cup her cheek. "I mean that, you've taken really good care of them since your Mom got sick, and you put them before yourself sometimes, making sure they're doing okay even if you aren't. I really admire you for that."

"I just don't like to see them hurting," Sami murmured. "I'm supposed to protect them, that's my job."

"And it's my job to protect you and Will," Lucas reminded her, sliding his arms around her waist and drawing her closer. "So if you want me to come with you tomorrow, I will."

"Would you, really?" Sami asked. "What about work?"

"I think I can afford a day off," Lucas assured her with a smirk. "Victor will understand. If you want me there, I'll be there.

"

"Thank you," Sami said with a sigh.

"I'm always here for you, baby," Lucas reminded her. "Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask, you know that."

Sami did know it, he'd even put a similar sentiment into his wedding vows eight years earlier. He had been her rock, her strength, for as long as she could remember. They'd known each other their whole lives, just about, and he had always been a permanent fixture in her life, but if someone had told her when she was a kid that one day Lucas Roberts would be her husband, she would have laughed.

That is, she would have laughed right after she stepped on their toes.

Even when they'd become best friends, she hadn't really ever considered him in that light. At twelve, she'd thought his older half-brother Austin Reed was perfect, but by the time she was thirteen, she was rather disillusioned with her sister's boyfriend. He wasn't good enough for Carrie, that much she realized soon enough, so she had been thrilled when they broke up over Austin's decision to pursue a boxing career instead of going to college.

Austin left town for New York City, and Carrie enrolled in the medical school at Salem University, doing her internship at the hospital, which was how she came to fall in love with Mike Horton, Lucas' other older half-brother.

They were a much better match in her opinion, and when the two had finally gotten married, Carrie had asked her to be the maid-of-honor. Lucas had been the best man, of course, and his sister Jennifer Deveraux had been a bridesmaid along with Cassie and Belle, with Brady and Rex both acting as groomsmen, but the most precious sight of all had been little Will and Abby playing the part of ringbearer and flower girl.

_They've both grown so much,_ she thought with a wistful smile. It seemed like every month they had gotten another inch taller, and part of her didn't want her baby to grow up so fast. She knew that her sister-in-law Jenn felt the same way about nine year old Abby, so even if Lucas and Jack didn't understand why they got so emotional with each little milestone the kids took, it was nice to know that she could be 'crazy' as Jack called it with Jenn.

"Whatever you need," Lucas repeated, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"I need you to come with me tomorrow," Sami whispered.

"Then I'll meet you at Basic Black," Lucas promised. "Just name the time, and we'll drive over together."

"I don't know how I would have gotten through this mess without you," she murmured into the crook of his neck, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne.

"I don't know how I would have gotten through this life without you," Lucas retorted softly, his warm breath spilling across the back of her neck as he brushed her hair aside. "I can't imagine life without you in it, Sami. Never could. You and Will are the most important things in the whole world to me, and you always will be."

"I know," Sami sighed contentedly, just savoring the moment of peaceful tranquility, something she could only ever find in his arms.

No matter how hectic their lives got, with her constantly busy at Basic Black and him practically running Titan for Victor now that his stepfather wanted more time away from the office to spend with his wife and to enjoy life, they always managed to find time for each other, and for their son. Much like Friday dinners were set aside for her family, Saturdays were reserved entirely for Will.

Just last weekend, they had taken the Titan jet to San Diego, so that he could tour the San Diego zoo now that he was on an animal craze. Will had practically skipped the whole way, his eyes wide as he took in all the different animals, and despite the fact that they'd both had longs day at work the day before, both Sami and Lucas had grinned like kids themselves at his exuberance.

To think that nine years ago, they had been just friends, until one night changed everything.

"Do you remember the night we conceived Will?" she asked.

Lucas smirked, resting his chin on her shoulder. "How could I forget?" he leered playfully. "It was the first time I got you into bed."

"Technically there was no bed involved," Sami pointed out dryly.

"It was also the night that changed our lives," Lucas added softly, nuzzling her neck. "The night that you became mine."

"Mmm," Sami murmured, letting her eyes fall closed as she leaned back against his strong chest. That night had been the beginning of something special between them, something unexpected that she supposed, in hindsight, wasn't as unexpected as it may have seemed.

It had been the night of her junior prom, and she'd been asked by Franco Kelly, a senior in her Calculus class who all her friends thought was dreamy. Carrie had gone prom dress shopping with her and they'd managed to find a spaghetti-strapped dress the exact shade of blue as her eyes and the perfect shoes to go along with it. Her mother had even paid for her and her gal-pal Jamie Caldwell to get their hair and makeup done at the spa over on 4th Street.

The night had started out wonderfully, despite how many pictures her mother had taken at the house when Franco came to pick her up and the overprotective act her father and little brothers had put on. Eric had already left to go pick up his date, but he'd promised John ahead of time that he'd keep an eye on Franco at the prom, just in case.

They'd driven to the Continental Hotel downtown, where the prom was being held, and met up with their classmates inside the spacious ballroom, which had been decorated with a vibrant and breathtaking silver and black theme.

About halfway through the night, Eric had stolen her away for a dance and by the time he headed back to his date, she had lost track of Franco, so she'd gone over to sit with Jamie and her date Greg for a while, the three of them discussing their after-prom plans. When twenty minutes had gone by without any sign of her date, Sami had excused herself and gone looking for him.

She'd found Franco in the place she'd least expected to find him, in the girl's bathroom making out with the head cheerleader Kelly Bates.

Angry and embarrassed, Sami had fled the prom, rushing out into the rain without even pausing to go back to Jamie's table for her purse or shawl. She hadn't really been thinking, she'd just known that she couldn't stay there any longer, and so she'd ended up walking in the pouring rain, in a prom gown and high heels, eventually ending up outside of the Titan Publishing Complex.

To this day, she didn't know what had led her there, maybe she'd just headed in that direction without realizing it, or maybe she'd been subconsciously hoping that Lucas would still be there since he'd been working late all week due to the big presentation he was in charge of.

Either way, she'd gotten lucky, no pun intended, because she'd spotted the light on in his office, so she'd gotten the night-guard to let her into the lobby and buzz his office. He'd clearly been surprised when the guard told him she was there, but he'd said to send her on up, and it hadn't been until she was in the elevator that Sami finally took note of her disheveled appearance by looking at the mirrored ceiling.

Her hair was still up in its elegant twist, thanks to the sturdy clip holding it in place, but it was soaking wet, and the ringlets that had framed her face earlier were now plastered to her cheeks. Her lips were starting to turn blue and her makeup had run a bit. No wonder the guard had looked at her so strangely when she first approached him.

Lucas' reaction had been much more vocal, though, when she walked into his office a dripping mess. He'd immediately forgotten his work and stepped out from behind his desk, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and his blazer jacket hanging over the back of his leather chair, and demanded to know what had happened.

She'd told him everything, from finding Franco with Kelly to walking the twelve blocks in the rain from the Continental Hotel. He'd called Franco an asshole and offered to get Austin to beat the guy up, after all what good was having a boxer brother if you never put him to use, and then he'd called her an idiot for walking all that way in the rain without a coat when she could have just used a pay phone at the hotel to call him and he would have come to pick her up.

Luckily, she still had a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt stowed away in his office for the days when they headed down to Salem Lake straight from work to take out Victor's yacht, so Lucas had ushered her into the Photo Lab to change into the dry clothes. When she opened the door again, she found Lucas standing on the other side with a handful of tiny liquor bottles from Victor's mini-bar and a hanger for her dress.

_He always did think of everything,_ Sami thought with a small smile.

A few little bottles of vodka later, she was spilling her sob story, wanting to know what was wrong with her that her prom date would ditch her for another girl. Lucas had, in typical Lucas fashion, insisted that there was nothing wrong with her, that she was beautiful. She had rolled her eyes skeptically, which irritated him, and he demanded to know why she never believed him when he told her that. Her answer had been that she knew he was just trying to make her feel better because she was worthless, so Lucas had gotten angry, snapping that she wasn't worthless and he wasn't feeling sorry for her, right before grabbing her by the chin and kissing her senseless.

_"Don't you know how much I care about you?" Lucas asked softly once he'd pulled back, his dark eyes searching hers._

_"You kissed me..." Sami breathed, a tumbling mess of emotions washing over her._

_"Yes, I did," Lucas agreed evenly, his thumb stroking her cheek tenderly. "And I'm going to kiss you again as soon as I finish this sentence."_

_"Why?" was all that Sami could manage to ask._

_"Because I care about you," Lucas informed her with a gentle smile. "Because I like you. Because I..." he trailed off, struck by a sudden moment of clarity despite the alcohol they had consumed, and the realization that swept over him was mind-blowing. _

_"Because you what?" Sami asked breathlessly._

_"I love you..." Lucas concluded, a stunned look on his face, talking more to himself than to her. "I love you... how did I not know that?"_

_Not knowing what to say to that, and touched by the vulnerability she was witnessing in him, Sami leaned forward and captured his lips with hers, and lost herself in his kisses._

Needless to say, the next morning the hangover had been a bit rough, worse for her than for Lucas since she wasn't such an experienced drinker, but both of them were able to remember everything that had transpired the night before.

Instead of feeling self-conscious waking up naked with her best friend under the white sheets of the Photo Lab, Sami had felt strangely at peace. There was only one thing she needed to know, and so she had asked him if he meant what he said last night, that he loved her, and Lucas assured her that he had.

She'd kissed him again after that, and whispered that she loved him, too, she always had, she just didn't realize it until that night.

Somehow, they had been lucky enough to wake up before anyone arrived at Titan for the day, so they had gotten dressed and made themselves look presentable before sneaking back over to Lucas' office. Inside, Lucas had told her that they needed to figure out what to do now, and confessed that he wanted to be with her. Sami had agreed, saying that was what she wanted to, and from that moment on they had been a couple, although they decided to wait a while before sleeping together again, until they were ready.

Of course, that really hadn't mattered much a month later when she found out she was pregnant.

"We're really luck, you know that?" Sami said quietly.

"I've always known that," Lucas retorted lightly, kissing the side of her neck. "Great kid, great families, great jobs, great penthouse, great cars... not to mention a great sex life."

Snorting, Sami rolled her eyes. "Is that all you ever think about?" she asked dryly.

"No," Lucas replied, his lips moving to her ear. "I think about lots of things."

"Like what?" she asked, breathless as his teeth grazed her earlobe.

"Ask me again later," Lucas murmured. "After we tuck in our son."

"You planning on giving me an extensive, hands-on answer?" Sami inquired with a smirk, rising to her feet so that he could get up off of the couch.

"Oh, Sami, baby, you better believe it."


	5. Chapter 5

Altered Reality 

**Chapter Five:**

"Good morning, Ms. Walker."

Stifling a yawn, Nicole gave Sami's secretary a tired smile as she passed the woman's desk. "Hi, Denise," she said wearily. "Is it okay if I go on in?"

"Of course, Ms. Walker," Denise answered with a pleasant nod. "Would you like me to bring you some coffee?"

"Yes, please," Nicole replied in relief.

"I'll bring it in shortly, then."

"Thank you," Nicole said over her shoulder and then gave a sharp knock on the smooth black door looming in front of her.

"Come in," a familiar voice called from inside, slightly muffled by the thick door.

Turning the silver handle, Nicole pushed the door open and stepped into the office to find her future sister-in-law seated in her big, black leather chair, busy looking over what appeared to be the latest sketches for the summer line.

"Hard at work already?" she asked with a smile.

Sami chuckled, lifting her head to meet Nicole's gaze. "Someone has to actually do some work around here," she replied jokingly, setting the sketches aside. "How was dinner with Brady last night?"

"Not nearly as nice as breakfast with him this morning," Nicole retorted, smirking in satisfaction.

"Not another word," Sami warned, rolling her eyes. "There's a limit to how much information I can take about my little brother's love life."

"What?" Nicole asked innocently. "I was referring to the pancakes he made for me."

"Uh huh," Sami said wryly. "Sure you were. All set for another hour of torture this morning?"

"I'm starting to wish you would just hire stand-in models for fittings," Nicole groaned, dropping unceremoniously into one of the comfortable chairs in front of Sami's desk. "I swear if Donavon sticks me with one more pin, I'm going to wring his neck."

"No, you won't," Sami replied calmly. "But you have my permission to stick him with one of his own pins if it makes you feel any better."

"Really?" Nicole asked eagerly.

"Sure, as long as you can find someone even better to take his place when he quits," Sami deadpanned. "Just suck it up and imagine hitting him with blunt objects in your head, Nic. It will be over before you know it."

"Easy for you to say," Nicole grumbled. "You're not the one he's using as a pincushion for an hour."

"Thank God," Sami said, grimacing at the thought.

"Some friend you are," Nicole accused lightly.

"Hey, I introduced you to your fiancé, remember?" Sami shot back. "And not just anyone is good enough for my brothers, so you should be flattered."

In truth, she was flattered, it meant a lot to her that Brady's family not only accepted her, but they all seemed to genuinely like her, as well. She'd never been too worried about Sami's approval, though, because Sami had been the one to introduce her to Brady. She had only been modeling for Basic Black for about a month, but she had made friends with Kate's daughter-in-law quickly, so when Sami had asked her if she wanted to go to the Blue Note for drinks after work one evening, she hadn't thought much about it.

Of course, the Blue Note just so happened to be owned by Victor Kiriakis, Kate's husband, and managed by his grandson Brady Kiriakis, who just so happened to be Sami's half-brother.

In hindsight, Sami had probably been plotting that first meeting for weeks before it happened.

Not that she was complaining, of course, that night had been the start of a wonderful romance with Brady, they'd talked the whole evening and then he'd asked her out to dinner the following weekend, and now, two and a half years later, they were engaged to be married.

"Speaking of your brothers," Nicole cleared her throat, venturing towards a touchy subject. "Brady told me the news about your mother. How are you holding up?"

Sami sighed heavily, rubbing her temples. "Honestly? I'm just trying to focus on my family right now. I still feel numb, you know?" she explained. "It hasn't really sunken in yet that this is for real, that she's actually lucid and coming home in a few days."

"Brady's wrestling with it, too," Nicole told her solemnly, remembering her fiancé's tortured expression the night before as he spilled out all his uncertainties and fears to her listening ears. "We talked for a long time last night once we got back to my apartment, and he's pretty confused about how to react."

"We all are, this came out of nowhere," Sami murmured, biting her lip. "I mean, it took us a long time to adjust, to accept that Mom wasn't going to ever be the same, and now they're telling us that she's going to be okay? The past three years of our lives have been overshadowed by her illness, and now that's she's better... I don't think any of us, my father included, know what to do."

Nicole nodded silently, having heard similar sentiments from Brady the night before. She could only imagine what it must be like to be in their shoes, to have the past three years of your life be defined by such a tragic event. While she wasn't all that close to her mother Faye, or to her older half-brother Brandon Carver for that matter, she had no idea how she would have coped with having her mother institutionalized.

"Brady said you're going to visit her at the sanitarium today?" Nicole inquired.

"Yeah," Sami sighed. "I've been dreading it all day. I don't know what to expect from her, much less what I'm going to say. It's been three years... she's missed out on so much of my life, of Will's life. The last time he saw her, he was five years old!"

"He remembers her, though, right?" Nicole asked hesitantly. "I mean, he's told me stories about how she used to take him to the ride on the carousel, back before she 'went away'."

"He remembers her," Sami confirmed with a nod. "He's got five years worth of his own memories, and then we've all tried so hard to keep him surrounded by pictures and stories, so he doesn't feel like he only has one grandmother, but she's been sick for so long... he doesn't even refer to Kate as Grandma Kate anymore, just Grandma. I don't know how he's going to adjust to having Mom back again."

"What did he say when you told him?"

"We haven't told him yet," Sami replied, tapping her fingernails on the surface of her desk absently. "I'm going to sit down with Lexie after I visit with my mother and try to figure out how to explain this to him without confusing him too much. I guess we'll sit him down and tell him tonight, after we pick him up from Jack and Jenn's."

Nicole opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again as the door to Sami's office opened.

"Sami, dear," Kate Kiriakis said as she entered the room, her gaze glued to the files in her hand. "Do you happen to have the..." she trailed off as she finally looked up and saw that Sami was not alone. "Oh, hello, Nicole."

"Good morning, Mrs. Kiriakis," Nicole replied with a smile. "Um, I can leave if you want some privacy..."

"No, that won't be necessary," Kate assured her before focusing in on Sami. "Do you happen to have the Barron's account file? I wanted to check over something."

"Sure," Sami responded, pushing her chair back and turning it around to open the filing cabinet behind her desk. After searching through the tabs for a moment, she found the folder she wanted and pulled it out, handing the file to her mother-in-law. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything's fine," Kate answered, her eyes skimming the file. "I just needed to verify some of these orders, that's all."

She handed the folder back to Sami, who returned it to its place in the filing cabinet and closed the drawer.

"Ms. Walker?"

Nicole looked up to see Denise poking her head into the office, a cup of coffee in hand. "Oh, thank you, Denise," she said, giving the secretary a grateful smile as she took the cup, taking a slow sip. "Mmm, I needed this."

"You're welcome," Denise said. "Mrs. Roberts, Mrs. Kiriakis, can I get either of you some coffee?"

"No, thank you," Kate declined.

"I'm fine, thanks, Denise," Sami added.

Denise backed out into the hall, closing the office door behind her, and Sami sighed, leaning back in her chair.

"Are you feeling okay, Sami?" Kate asked with concern. "You look tired."

"I didn't get much sleep last night," Sami explained wearily. "I had too much on my mind, what with Mom being released and all."

"Understandable," Kate commented, moving closer to lean over the desk and touch the back of her hand to Sami's forehead, a frown crossing her face. "You're a bit warm, maybe you should take some aspirin."

Nicole hid a smile behind her coffee cup, amused at the motherly scene she was witnessing.

"I'm fine, Kate," Sami protested.

"You don't feel fine," Kate retorted stubbornly. "I have some aspirin in my desk, I'll go get it for you."

"Actually," Nicole spoke up, grabbing her purse from the spot she had placed it on the chair next to her and unzipping it to pull out a small bottle of Advil. "Here you go, Sami."

"Thank you, Nicole," Kate said, taking the bottle from her and shoving it into Sami's hands. "You keep a water bottle in your mini-fridge under your desk, so get it out and take the pills."

Rolling her eyes, Sami did as she was told, popping the capsules into her mouth and washing them down with a long swig from her bottled water. "Happy?" she asked dryly once she'd swallowed.

"Very," Kate replied smoothly.

Nicole had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the two of them. They had such a unique relationship, one that had only grown stronger in Marlena's absence, but from what she'd been told by Brady, Sami had always had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, one that had been built upon their mutual love for Lucas.

"Now, then," Kate cleared her throat. "Lucas tells me that the two of you are going to visit Marlena this afternoon, is that right?"

"Yeah," Sami murmured, without much enthusiasm. "That's right."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

An irritated scowl crossed Sami's face, and Nicole winced, grateful that her wrath was not being directed at her. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"Because it's a good question, that's why," Kate said evenly, not so much as blinking at the younger woman's tone. "And don't avoid the subject."

"No," Sami admitted with a sigh. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea, but I'm going to do it anyway. My Dad needs me to do this, and maybe I need to do it, too. And Lexie thinks it will help her adjust easier if she's surrounded by familiar faces and people who love her, so..."

"Lexie's right," Kate mused thoughtfully. "I think any mother would need to see her children in that situation. I know I certainly would."

"And what do I tell her?" Sami demanded. "Am I just supposed to blurt out that everything she thinks she knows about me is a lie? That I resent her for even thinking I would do some of the things she's convinced I did? That the hatred she dreamed up between us isn't real and that according to Lexie it stems from her subconscious jealousy of our relationship?"

"Why not?" Kate shrugged. "She's going to find out all of that eventually, you might as well be upfront and honest about it."

"Easy for you to say," Sami grumbled. "She's not your mother."

"But she is _your_ mother," Kate pointed out gently. "And more than anything, she's just going to be looking for some kind of sign as to how you feel about her. She's a former psychiatrist, Sami, she's going to know that you and your brothers and sisters have mixed feelings in regard to her illness. All she needs from you is the truth. The sooner she's able to start piecing together her life again, the sooner she's able to start remembering."

Sami was silent for a long moment, her lips pressed together in a thing line, obviously taking in what her mother-in-law had just said, and then she glared at Kate weakly. "Do you always have to be right about everything?"

"Yes," Kate answered without hesitation. "It's a gift."

The corners of Sami's mouth tugged upwards faintly, and she shook her head in exasperation.

"I need to get back down to the fitting," Kate announced, leaning over to kiss Sami on the cheek. "You take it easy today, understand?"

"I understand," Sami promised. "I'll be down as soon as I finish writing up the suggested revisions to these sketches."

"Don't be too long," Kate warned. "Donavon has been at an all-time high today, I need you down there to keep him in line."

"I'll hurry," Sami replied.

"Nicole, your fitting starts in five minutes," Kate informed her on her way out the door. "Don't be late."

"No, ma'am, I won't be," Nicole responded. Once she was gone, Nicole raised an eyebrow at Sami. "I just realized, has anyone called Carrie, Eric or Cassie yet about your mother?"

"Dad's going to call them today and fill them in, but I don't know if any of them will be able to come back to Salem right now," Sami answered. "Mike and Carrie are so busy with the clinic in Israel, and Eric's schedule has been crazy, one photo shoot after another. And it's the middle of the semester for Cassie, she can't afford to miss class."

"That's a shame," Nicole said sincerely. "I know you and Brady miss them, and I think it would mean a lot to your father if they came home for a while. Especially now that your mother is going to be coming home, too."

"Yeah," Sami agreed. "It would be nice, and maybe in a few months they'll be able to, but right now, it's just not good timing. Mom's illness has already taken up so much of our family's life, it shouldn't take up any more. We'll take care of Mom, and when their lives are a little more peaceful, they'll come back to Salem to visit her. Hopefully by then she'll have her memories back, so they won't have to suffer the way the rest of us have."

_You don't have to be so noble all the time, Sami,_ Nicole thought, but she didn't dare to say it aloud, knowing how much Sami prided herself on being the strong one. _It's okay to resent them for not having to deal with Marlena's illness firsthand the way you have._

Instead, she rose to her feet, swallowing the last drops of her coffee, and threw the styrofoam cup into the trash can in the corner. "Well, I'd better get down to the fitting room before Donavon gets into an even worse mood and takes it out on me with those damn pins."

"Have fun," Sami drawled with a smirk.

"You're evil, you know that?" Nicole demanded as she headed for the door.

"So I'm told," Sami retorted, turning her attention back to the sketches on her desk. "Have a nice fitting, Nic."

"If you hear screams coming from the fitting room," Nicole told her dryly. "Don't call for help. It'll be me murdering your tailor."

"Alright," Sami replied. "Just clean up the blood when you're done."


	6. Chapter 6

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Six:**

"What do you got there, Tek?"

"Bavarian cream, glazed, strawberry frosted, cinnamon sugar and sprinkled," Tek announced, opening the lid of the box to reveal the donuts inside. "Take your pick, boss."

"Don't even think about taking my glazed donut, Bo," Hope warned from her desk, not bothering to look up from the paperwork she was filing out.

Bo Brady smirked, debating whether or not to take the glazed just to get a rise out of his wife, but he decided against it and selected a sprinkled donut and a cinnamon sugar one instead. "Thanks, Tek."

"No problem," Tek replied, moving along to let the others pick out their donuts.

Rising from his chair, Bo crossed the room to his brother's desk, holding out the cinnamon sugar donut to him. "Here, big bro," he said, handing it to him. "You look like you could use some sugar."

"Thanks," John muttered, taking a bite. "I look that bad, huh?"

"You look tired," Bo replied honestly, pulling up a spare chair from along the wall and dropping down onto it. "Didn't get much sleep last night, I take it?"

"The kids were over until almost eleven," John answered with a weary nod. "After I told them the news, Sami and Belle cooked dinner and we spent the evening together as a family."

"How'd they take it?" Bo inquired, biting off a chunk of his donut. When John had called him the day before to tell him that the experimental drugs had worked and Marlena had been stabilized, he'd been floored. While his brother had kept him informed every step of the way, confiding his frustrations and fears which he didn't want to burden his children with, Bo had done his best to keep John realistic and not to let him get his hopes up.

"About as well as can be expected," John sighed, rubbing his chin. "Belle's just excited to have Marlena coming home, but the other three are more wary. Brady's nervous, Rex is upset and Sami... well, you know Sami. I haven't got a clue what's going on in that girl's head right now, she thinks she has to be the strong one all the time, so she's going to keep focusing on helping the rest of us get through it, rather than dealing with her own issues."

"She definitely has the family stubbornness," Bo agreed with a grim nod.

"You can say that again," John muttered under his breath and Bo grinned.

"Like father, like daughter, eh?"

John gave him an annoyed glare. "Like you're one to talk, Beauregard."

"Oh, now that's just low," Bo informed him, scowling at the use of the dreaded full name. "How would you like it if I went around calling you 'Roman', huh?"

"Try it and I'll wipe the floor with you, kid brother," John retorted, finishing off the last of his donut.

Bo rolled his eyes, used to such idle threats. "You may be older, but I'm bigger," he reminded his brother smugly. "Besides, you're getting senile in your old age."

John snorted, shaking his head, and Bo looked him over appraisingly, searching for telltale signs of how his brother was really handling Marlena's recovery. The past three years had been a long, hard road for John and he'd stumbled along the way, but Bo and their parents, along with their sisters Kim and Kayla who no longer lived in Salem, had done their best to pick him up again when he did. Family had always been important to the Brady clan, but after losing one of their own to such a terrible illness and seeing the affect it had on John and the kids, they had grown even closer.

And watching Marlena be committed had made Bo even more grateful for Hope and the boys.

He couldn't imagine what he would do if anything were to ever happen to his beautiful wife, especially not something as heart-wrenching as Marlena's schizophrenia. It was unthinkable, the very idea of somehow going on without her, of raising Shawn and little Zack on his own, watching them grow up without their mother and trying to help them through it even when he was struggling to cope himself.

In truth, Bo didn't know how John had managed it.

"What are you two talking about?"

Bo smiled up at his wife as she passed John's desk to throw out her styrofoam coffee cup. "What a gorgeous woman you are."

Hope rolled her eyes, tossing the cup in the trash can. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really," Bo drawled. "Isn't that right, Johnny boy?"

"Right," John agreed with a straight face. "That and what brand of hair dye Bo uses to conceal all of those gray hairs."

Bo gave him an indignant look, but Hope laughed, shaking her head. "Clairol, he likes the way it makes his hair all silky and smooth."

"Hey," Bo protested, shooting her an insulted glare. "Thanks a lot, sweetheart."

"I just call them like I see them, Bo," Hope defended, raising her hands. Before he could reply, she turned to John with a serious expression. "Are you going to see Marlena today?"

"Yeah," John confirmed with a slow nod. "Sami's going to visit Marlena this afternoon, so I'm clocking out early so that I can be there when she does."

"That's probably a good idea," Hope replied. "I have a feeling she's going to need you."

"That's a fact," John agreed. "Visiting her mother has never been an easy thing for her to do, not that I blame her. It hasn't been easy for me to keep going, either."

"I know," Hope murmured, placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "But you've been so strong for so long, John. You kept faith when everyone thought it was impossible for her to get better, and now that faith has paid off. Your wife is coming home."

John smiled, his dark eyes bright with bittersweet relief. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing those five little words."

"Anytime you want to hear them, just ask and we'll shout them from the rooftops, then," Bo promised.

"You two have been great, you know that?" John said seriously, clasping his hands in front of him. "I mean that, I don't think the kids and I could have gotten through this without you and Ma and Pop. That first couple of months, I don't think I once brought groceries, much less stepped into the kitchen, but you made sure that Belle and I had everything we needed and you dropped by with food at the boys' loft and over at the penthouse..."

"That's what family is for, John," Hope replied, giving him a small smile. "We take care of each other, and we support each other through whatever it is we're going through."

"She's right, bro," Bo acknowledged. "You'd do the same for us."

"Yeah, I would," John agreed with a nod. "But I still appreciate everything you've done for us."

"Don't mention it," Bo told him dissmissively. "We're brothers."

"As if we needed a reminder of that fact," a deep voice said, and they looked up as Abe Carver came out of his office. "Now that your son Shawn thinks he wants to be a cop, we might have to start a special division just for your family, Brady."

"Hey, better for him to be on this side of the bars than behind them," Bo retorted. "Besides, he's still got a few years of college left before he makes any decision, and for now the only job he needs to worry about is waiting tables at the Pub."

"Enjoy it while you can, my friend," Abe told him, clapping him on the shoulder. "They grow up fast."

"Hard to believe that Brandon has a baby boy already, huh?" Hope asked with a knowing smile.

"Oh, I imagine I'm lucky," Abe chuckled. "After all, he and Lexie waited until they were both set with their careers before they decided to have children, so now all I have to worry about is spoiling my grandson."

"That's definitely a perk of the job," John replied. "Even though Sami was barely more than a little girl herself when she had Will, I wouldn't change it for the world. Will is the most amazing kid, it's almost scary how perceptive he is, even at eight."

"Almost makes you feel bad for Lucas and Sami when he hits his teen years, doesn't it?" Bo snickered. "Maybe he'll give them as many gray hairs as Sami gave you."

"One can only hope," John muttered with a sigh.

Sensing that his older brother's thoughts had turned back to Marlena again, Bo nodded towards Abe's office, a silent request for Hope and Abe to give them a little privacy. Without a word, they both complied, leaving the two brothers alone, and Bo ran a hand through his hair, trying to decide the best approach.

"I remember the day that you and Marlena were married," he mused with a sad smile. "You were so nervous up at the altar waiting for her, but the moment she appeared at the end of the aisle, it was like everything in the world was right again. I don't think I've ever seen either of you happier, except for maybe when the kids were born, or at your second wedding."

"None of which she even remembers," John murmured desolately, lifting a fist to his mouth absently. "It kills me knowing that she doesn't even know me, not really, and I hate what it's going to do to the kids when she has to ask them for their life stories."

"No one ever said it was going to be easy," Bo reminded him. "But you raised those kids right, John, you did. They're strong, and they don't hesitate to lean on each other when they need it. They'll get through this, and so will you and Marlena. Just take it one day at a time."

"That's what everyone keeps saying," John chuckled faintly. "I just wish I could help her remember, not just for my sake or for the kids', but for her sake, too. She hates being confused, being so helpless, but Lexie says the only thing we can do is be patient."

"You know," Bo said thoughtfully. "Ma and Pop still have all of those home movies boxed up in the attic, tapes of things like the your weddings, the kids' birthday parties and school plays, both Sami and Carrie's weddings and Will's first steps... maybe showing them to Marlena might help jog her memory or something."

"You may be on to something, Bo," John acknowledged, nodding slowly. "At this point I'm willing to try anything. I'll stop by the Pub later and see if Ma and Pop know where the box with all the tapes is."

"It should be in the back right corner of the attic," Bo supplied, and off of John's curious look, he explained, "I saw it when I was up there getting out the red tablecloths for Ma to decorate the Pub for Valentine's Day."

"Got special plans for you and Hope this weekend?" John asked, a twinge of sadness in his dark eyes.

"Shawn's going out with Chloe, so we don't have a sitter for Zack," Bo replied, shaking his head. "So it looks like it'll be a quiet evening at home this year."

"Don't do that," John protested. "Drop Zack off at the house, I'll watch him."

Bo hesitated, not wanting to impose. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." John nodded. "Belle's got something planned with Philip, and since Marlena won't be released until next week and visiting hours are over at seven, I'll be home alone anyway. Zack and I will have a great time together."

"Thanks, bro," Bo sighed. "I appreciate it, really, I do. Things have been so stressful this month, Hope and I could use a night off."

"I know what you mean," John murmured.

_I know you do,_ Bo thought sadly. He could remember back when John's kids had been little, when he would baby-sit for them while John and Marlena took a night for themselves. It had never really felt like much of a chore to watch them, the boys were fun to play with, building forts and playing pirates, and the girls were just so precious that it was worth letting them braid his hair into painful knots that Hope had to untangle for him when he got home. By the time Belle came along, he was able to take Shawn over with him, giving his son time to play with his cousins, and allowing Hope to get some rest at home.

And more importantly, it had given his brother and sister-in-law so alone time, something hard to come by in a household with six kids.

"Got any suggestions for something original to do for Hope?" Bo inquired with a wry smirk. "After twenty-two years of marriage I'm running out of ideas."

"Valentine's Day hasn't been much of a priority for me these past few years," John responded, and Bo winced, regretting that he'd inadvertently reminded his brother of that pain. "But Brady's taking Nicole to the Penthouse Grille and Lucas always takes Sami to Tuscany, so if you're going for original those choices are out."

"Yeah," Bo agreed, sighing in frustration. "Maybe I'll ask Shawn, that kid always thinks up creative dates for him and Chloe. I think he got that from his mother."

"Along with his brains," John quipped.

"Ha ha," Bo snorted. "If Lucas and Sami are going out on Valentine's Day, who's watching Will?"

"Alice Horton is keeping both him and Abby Deveraux for the night," John replied, lifting his coffee from his desk and taking a slow sip.

"Mrs. H is one hell of a lady," Bo commented, and John nodded his agreement. "Remember how she always had fresh donuts for us whenever she saw us when we were growing up?"

"And now she feeds those same donuts to my grandson," John mused, smiling faintly.

"Lucky kid," Bo grumbled. "The stuff we get here at the station doesn't hold a candle to Alice Horton's famous donuts."

"Nothing does," John retorted.

"Brady!"

Bo glanced over at the dispatcher's desk, cocking an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"Both," Jim replied shortly. "We've got a report of a break-in across town. You two want to take it?"

"Why not?" John shrugged, rising to his feet and grabbing his coat from the back of his chair. "I'll bring the car around, tell Abe we're heading out."

"Right," Bo agreed, heading back to his own desk to get his jacket before crossing to Abe's office and knocking on the door as he opened it. Hope and Abe were going over reports, but they both looked up at his arrival. "John and I are checking out a call about a break-in on the other side of town, then we'll do some rounds. We should be back by noon, since John's leaving early today."

"Okay," Abe acknowledged. "Radio it in if you need backup."

"Will do, boss," Bo promised with a lazy salute.

He closed the office door behind them, slipping on his coat and heading for the doors to meet John in the parking lot, zipping it up before stepping out into the cold February morning.

_It's been a long week already,_ he thought grimly, rubbing his hands together as he waited for John to bring the car up. _And I have a feeling it's about to get even longer._


	7. Chapter 7

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Seven:**

Sitting in the black leather chair of the visiting room, Marlena tapped her fingers on the arms of the chair anxiously, glancing over at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the hundredth time.

The small room, though painted a calming tan with various pictures of Salem landmarks adorning the walls, was starting to feel confining the longer she waited. Thanks to her own former profession as a psychiatrist, she knew that Lexie was probably watching her through the mirror on the back wall, which was really a one-way window.

_I feel like a lab-rat,_ she thought with a sigh.

She resisted the temptation to look at the clock again, knowing it hadn't even been more than thirty seconds, and placed her head in her hands wearily. Waiting was not something she was very good at, especially not when she was such a nervous wreck.

Her day had been long and full of frustration. Since John had work at the station, she had spent the morning in Lexie's office with the young doctor, discussing the various treatments that they'd tried with her in the past and the history of her illness, how it has first manifested and the extremes to which it had gone before she was committed.

But the part of that conversation that she cared about most was the part about her family, about her friends, about Salem, and about her life. With only the memories created by her illness available to her, Marlena hungered for answers.

In her situation, knowledge was not only power, but security and sanity, as well.

Lexie hadn't been willing to give her too many details, saying that it wasn't her place to divulge the secrets of others' lives, but what she had told her had left her stunned, especially the fact that Abe was Lexie's father-in-law, not husband, and that Theo was Brandon's son.

More importantly, she had once been involved with Tony, Lexie's half-brother. They'd never married, but they had been together for several years before he died in a car accident, leaving her alone with their twin children, Rex and Cassie, who were just infants at the time. It was going to take some getting used to in order to picture herself in love with Tony DiMera, at least the Tony she knew, but even more incredible was the fact that Stefano was not only alive and well, but very close to John and her kids.

And, apparently, he'd helped foot the bill for her treatment.

Unable to resist, she glanced up at the clock again, wondering what was taking so long.

The sound of footsteps outside filtered in under the door, and she straightened in her chair, smoothing out her clothes and swallowing hard, hoping that she looked okay.

John was the first one through the door, offering her a small smile of silent support, understanding, as he always did, what she was thinking. He knew that this was a big moment for her, the start of trying to get her life back together, and he had made sure to arrive at the sanitarium a few minutes early so that he could talk to her before they arrived.

All of his supportive words of comfort fell away, though, as Marlena caught sight of the young woman entering the room behind her husband.

Sami was dressed in a sleek black business outfit that made her look remarkably sophistacated, her long golden hair pulled up into a twist at the crown of her head. Her strappy high heels clacked on the tiled floor as she walked, her slender hips swaying slightly, and a designer purse draped across her shoulder.

She looked, Marlena noted with mixed emotions, like a young, blond Kate Roberts.

Or was that Kate Kirakis? Hadn't John told her that Kate and Victor were still together and married?

Behind her daughter was Lucas Roberts, dressed in what was clearly an expensive suit, his gold Rolex gleaming as the overhead light danced across it. They looked like the epitome of a young, wealthy, successful couple, and from the way Lucas had his hand on the small of Sami's back in support, they were obviously very much in love.

"Doc," John said gently, placing a hand on Sami's arm. "I brought you some visitors."

Marlena swallowed, unable to speak, and Sami was carefully avoiding meeting her gaze, which wasn't much of a surprise. She still had her psychiatrist training, and she knew that this couldn't be easy for her eldest child.

It was Lucas who broke the silence, bless his heart, by clearing his throat and lifting a hand in greeting. "Hi, Marlena."

"Hello, Lucas," she said quietly, giving him a faint smile. "It's nice to see you again."

"I could say the same to you," Lucas replied. "You look lovely."

"I doubt that," Marlena admitted honestly. "But thank you."

"Anything for my favorite mother-in-law," Lucas remarked with a charming wink.

"She's your only mother-in-law, General," Sami muttered, speaking for the first time. She took a deep breath and then lifted her gaze to meet Marlena's. "Hi, Mom."

_That's my girl,_ Marlena thought with a flicker of pride as she rose from her chair. _Stubborn and strong, no matter what._

"Hi, sweetheart," she choked out, blinking back the tears welling in her eyes. "You look beautiful."

"After the morning I had at work, I don't think so," Sami snorted, then purposefully strode across the space between them and hugged her. "But thank you for saying it."

"That's a mother's job," Marlena reminded her hoarsely, her attempt to hold back her tears failing miserably as she held her daughter in her arms again, for the first time in three years apparently. "And it's true, Sami, you're so beautiful..."

"I must have gotten that from you, Mom," Sami murmured, her own voice shaking slightly, though she tried to hide it. She sniffled, and Marlena felt a few teardrops fall onto her shoulder, but she pretended not to notice for Sami's sake.

"Oh, Sami," she whispered, her voice catching on a sob as she touched her hand to her daughter's hair reverently. "My sweet girl."

"I missed you, Mom," Sami rasped, the two of them still clutching one another desperately. "I missed you so much."

Closing her eyes, Marlena just held her, feeling something familiar for the first time since waking up in the sanitarium, now that she had her child in her arms. No matter how strange and frightening things were, she still had her children, and with their love and support, she was certain that she could get better.

After a long moment, Sami pulled back, wiping at her eyes, and gave a short laugh. "God, my makeup is probably running all over the place."

"You look fine," Marlena promised her softly. "You're perfect."

Sami snorted, shaking her head so that her hair fell behind her shoulders, slowly regaining her composure. "Carrie is perfect," she corrected, and Marlena's heart dropped, fearing that the girls had a nasty rivalry here, as well, but her fears were put to rest when Sami offered her a small smirk. "I'm just close to it."

"And modest, too," John quipped, but he was looking at Sami in a way that clearly said that he thought she was perfect as could be. "Lucas and I are going to step outside for a bit, give you two some time to sit down and talk... is that okay?"

His question was mostly directed at Sami, Marlena noted, but her daughter- their daughter- nodded her agreement. "Yeah, go on," she instructed them with a weak smile. "We'll be fine, won't we, Mom?"

"Yes," Marlena said quietly, impressed with how grown-up and in control Sami was now, with not even a trace of the old bitterness and pain that used to haunt her. It made her proud and sad all at once to see what a capable woman she had become.

"Okay," Lucas replied, stepping forward to kiss Sami's cheek, the back of his hand grzing her cheek tenderly. "Good luck, baby."

"Thanks," Sami murmured, giving him a grateful smile.

"We'll be right outside, princess," John told her, leaning over to kiss the top of her hair, then gave Marlena an encouraging smile before opening the door and gesturing for Lucas to follow him out into the hallway.

Lucas winked at Sami, then closed the door behind him, leaving the two women alone.

Marlena glanced over at Sami, who was looking at the door with a faint smile, her pale blue eyes bright and soft, and she knew it was because of Lucas.

"You really love him, don't you?" she asked.

"He's the only man I've ever loved," Sami replied evenly, a gentle rebuke attached to her words, as if to say _how dare you think I would be with Austin or Brandon or Franco?_

"John... your father," Marlena corrected herself. "Tells me that the two of you have been married since Will was born."

"Before he was born, actually," Sami responded, taking a seat in one of the leather chairs, so Marlena sat back down in the one she had been waiting in earlier. "I found out I was pregnant when I was only about a month along, and we got married two months later."

"So soon?" Marlena asked, startled. John had explained to her that Sami and Lucas had been best friends growing up, but they hadn't been romantically involved until the night they conceived Will, so to get married only three months later must have been quite an adjustment for them.

"Daddy wanted things to happen quickly," Sami explained with a rueful smile. "If Lucas hadn't wanted to marry me anyway, I think we might have ended up with a genuine shotgun wedding- with Daddy and Uncle Bo holding their guns on Lucas and ready to handcuff him to the altar so he couldn't get away."

"Oh my," Marlena said, amused by the picture that put in her head. "I imagine that your father didn't take the news that he was going to be a grandfather so young very well?"

Sami shrugged. "Well, he never shot Lucas or tried to arrest him for statutory rape or anything, so I think he took it pretty well, all things considered. Of course, you had to calm him down when I first told you guys, I was afraid Daddy was going to rush over to the Kiriakis mansion and kill Lucas."

"I was... understanding then?" Marlena inquired hesitantly. "About you getting pregnant?"

"You were very supportive, Mom," Sami assured her, reaching across the small coffee table between them to lay her hand on top of hers. "I don't know how I would have gotten through my pregnancy without you and Carrie."

"You and Carrie get along, then?" Marlena asked.

For a moment Sami looked irritated, probably at the assumption, but she nodded. "Yeah, Mom, we do. We always have. In fact, when I first realized my period was late, Carrie was the first person I went to. I drove over to her dorm and told her, and she went with me to get a pregnancy test. She was great, she always has been."

"I'm sorry," Marlena sighed miserably, knowing now that the reaction Sami had just demonstrated had been because of her delusions. "I wish that none of this had happened, that I'd never gotten sick. I know it must have been so hard for you and Belle, Eric, Carrie and Brady..."

"And Rex and Cassie," Sami reminded her quietly.

"Right," Marlena agreed with a stab of guilt for forgetting the twins. "And Rex and Cassie. I know this must have been so horrible for you all to deal with, and it's not any easier now that I'm getting better and you have to explain every little thing to me over and over again."

"It is easier," Sami insisted, most likely out of loyalty. "Having you back makes it easier, even if it is going to take a lot of hard work, on all of our parts. Mom, we've all missed you, so much. You have no idea how many times we've all wished for you to have some miraculous recovery. And now you have."

"You're right," Marlena murmured, shaking her head in frustration. "I don't have any idea. I don't have any idea about anything. I keep forgetting that John is really Roman, that Lexie is married to Brandon and not Abe, that I have five children instead of three, that you and Kate aren't trying to kill each other..."

"Hey, it's okay," Sami said softly, squeezing her hand. "We'll help you get through this, Mom. You'll start to remember, I know you will. It's just going to take time, you know that, but if we're all patient and we all work at it, things will eventually go back to normal again. Well, as normal as our family can be, anyway- the Brady men can be a little weird at times."

Despite herself, Marlena smiled faintly, touched by her daughter's attempt to reassure her, especially when she was quite certain that Sami wasn't sure of very much herself right now.

"You've grown up into quite the woman, sweetie-girl," she told her, her smile tinged with regret at the knowledge that she had missed out on a whole three years of not only Sami's life, but of all of her children's lives, and she couldn't even remember anything of the past, of their childhoods or her life with John.

_What kind of mother could forget her own children?_ Marlena wondered bitterly.

As if sensing the direction her thoughts had taken, Sami squeezed her hand again comfortingly. "Lexie thinks that telling you things about your life and about ours might help you pick up on some things, maybe even help you start to remember bits and pieces on your own. So what do you want to know?"

Marlena was silent for a moment, deep in thought, and then she smiled weakly. "Tell me about your life. About your brothers and sisters and their lives, and what our family is like. I don't want to face them when they come on Thursday without knowing at least something about them."

"If you want, I'll come back on Thursday," Sami offered. "That way I can act as a buffer between you guys if things don't go smoothly."

"I'd appreciate that, sweetie," Marlena replied. "But I don't want you to miss work."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Sami said with a grin. "There are advantages to being the boss' daughter-in-law, not to mention the Vice President of the company, I can take as many sick days as I need. Besides, Kate already told me to take off as much time as I wanted for family stuff right now, so it's not a problem."

"You and Kate... you're close?" Marlena asked.

"Yeah," Sami confirmed, nodding. "She's always been sort of a second mother to me, I guess. She's always been great to me, ever since Lucas and I were kids, and when we got together, she was probably the only one not surprised. I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law, or a better business partnet. Everything I've learned about the business world, I learned from her and Victor."

"I'm not sure why I thought..." Marlena trailed off, shaking her head. She had been so convinced that Kate and Sami hated one another, that they were ought to destroy each other's lives any way possible, no matter the cost.

Then again, until recently she'd thought the same of Sami and Lucas, and clearly that just wasn't the case. Even her delusions had begun to show traces of their love these past few months... maybe that was a sign that her subconscious was trying to remember?

"Lexie said that it could have been jealousy," Sami told her quietly, looking down at her hands. "That you resented the closeness Kate and I shared, and your illness created a solution to that."

"I suppose that could be it," Marlena conceded, unable to argue with Lexie's logic. "I, um, I guess Kate has been even more important in your life while I was sick, huh?"

"Yes, she has," Sami admitted evenly. "She's been there for me, and for Belle since she's dating Philip, but she could never replace you, Mom, don't even think that, okay? You're the only mother I have, and no one could ever take your place."

Blinking back tears, Marlena squeezed Sami's hand tightly. "Thank you, sweetie-girl," she said, her voice thick with emotion.

Sami just smiled in reply.

"Now, um," Marlena steadied her voice. "You were going to tell me about your life, right? Tell me about Will, how's my grandson?"

"He's good," Sami answered with a proud, motherly smile. "He just got an A on his math test this week because Rex tutored him. He's growing up so fast, it's incredible. It seems like just yesterday that Bill was handing him to me at the hospital."

"Bill Horton?" Marlena said in surprise. "Bill delivered Will?"

"Mmm-hmm," Sami replied. "I was out with Jenn, she and I grew close during my pregnancy since she'd just had Abby a few months before I got pregnant, new mothers bonding and all that. I went into labor at Salem Place and Lucas was in a merger negotiation meeting, so Jenn called her mother and Laura rushed us over to the hospital and-"

"Laura and Bill are together still?" 

"Yeah, they never split up," Sami explained. "Lucas grew up spending half his time with Kate and Victor and the other half with Bill, so he has a pretty good relationship with his stepmom. She and Bill moved to Africa a few years ago because he wanted to do voulenteer work at the field hospitals over there, we actually went to visit them last summer, but I'm getting off track, aren't I?"

"Just a bit," Marlena conceded with a smile.

"Well, when we got to the hospital, Mike was on duty, so he got me all set up and Bill came in to check on me, while Laura called Titan and told Kate what was going on," Sami continued. "God, I was going crazy, my contractions were killing me and Lucas wasn't there yet... but you were at the hospital with a patient, so you came right up stayed with me through the whole thing, even after Lucas rushed in right before things got really intense."

"I stayed?" Marlena echoed. "Through your entire delivery?"

Sami actually blushed, looking a bit sheepish. "I wanted my Mommy, I guess, I wouldn't let you leave. It wasn't enough to have Lucas there, I needed you to hold my hand, too."

"Oh, sweetie-girl," Marlena breathed, choked up. "I..."

_A scream of agony echoed through the delivery room, dying out into labored, gasping breaths._

"You're doing good, sweetie-girl," Marlena promised, brushing hair out of her daughter's eyes. "It's almost over, you're almost done."

"God, it hurts!" Sami wailed, tears streaming down her face as her face twisted into a heartwrenching grimace of pain. "Mom, I can't do this... I can't... it hurts too much!"

"You can do this, Sami," Lucas assured her from the other side of the bed, squeezing his wife's hand in his and kissing her knuckles. His face was pale and haggard, and he didn't look like he was doing much better than Sami, but at least he was still conscious, which was more than Bo had been during Hope's delivery with Zack.

"He's halfway out, Sami," Mike called encouragingly. "Keep pushin, you're doing great."

Sami clenched her eyes shut, gritting her teeth to try and muffle her scream as another bolt of pain tore through her, and Marlena swallowed, hating to see her child in such agony, even when she knew that it would all be worth it once Sami got to hold that precious baby boy in her arms.

"One more push, Sami," Bill's voice rang out from the foot of the bed. "Just one more push and we're done. On three, okay? One... two... three!"

Marlena blinked, startled, her lips parting in surprise as the scene flooded into her mind, fuzzy and a bit blurry, but clear enough for her to recognize it as a memory, not a delusion brought on by her illness.

But if that was a memory, if what she'd just seen was real and not just wishful thinking, did that mean that Lexie was right? Was she starting to remember her past on her own already?

"Mom?"

Shaking her head to clear it, Marlena looked up to find Sami watching her with concern. "Hmm?"

"You sort of spaced out on me for a second," Sami told her worriedly.

"Oh, I'm alright, honey," Marlena promised. "I was just... thinking. About you and Will. It's been so long since I saw him, I wonder if he'll even recognize me."

"He will," Sami assured her. "He was five when you got sick and that's old enough to remember, plus he's seen plenty of pictures and home movies over the past three years. He hasn't forgotten you, I promise. Lucas and I would never let that happen."

"I know, sweetie-girl," Marlena replied with a small smile. "Now, tell me more about our family while you were growing up. I want to know all about what it was like for you and your brothers and sisters, what sports the boys played and who made the honor roll and all of that."

"Well, Rex always made the honor roll, because he's a genius," Sami said, rolling her eyes. "As I'm sure he'll tell you himself, he likes to brag about his brains, but that's okay because when were kids I could always beat him up."

"Did you all fight a lot?" Marlena asked.

"Not really," Sami replied with a shrug. "Rex, Cassie, Eric and I had a special bond because we're all twins, and Carrie was the best big sister a girl could ask for. Brady was great, too, even if he did like to annoy me when he was little, and well, Belle's always been a sweetheart."

"So you were happy?" Marlena mused aloud, relieved to know that she had at least been a better mother than she'd been in her head.

"Very," Sami assured her. "We all were, you and Daddy made sure of it."

"Good, I'm glad," Marlena sighed.

"Although it would have been nice if I hadn't had to share a bathroom with Eric, Brady and Rex," Sami said with a grimace. "They were always leaving the toilet seat up, and one night Belle fell into the toilet when she was six."

Marlena put a hand to her mouth, trying not to laugh. "She didn't!"

"Oh, she did," Sami replied, grinning. "It was hysterical, none of us could stop laughing. I think we've got it on tape somewhere, because Eric and Brady grabbed the video camera from downstairs."

"Oh, they were terrible," Marlena cried, unable to keep from laughing a little. "Poor Belle."

"Yeah," Sami agreed. "But we girls stick together, so we got them back a week later when they were camping out in the backyard and we snuck outside to throw sticks at their tent and scare the living daylights out of them."

Marlena sat back in her chair, listening as Sami regaled her with tales of her youth, and half an hour later when John and Lucas returned, neither of them noticed, they were so caught up in their conversation. When Marlena finally looked up and saw them, though, she locked gazes with John, who was shaking his head at Sami's story about how he and Bo had tried to build the kids a snowfort only to have it collapse on top of them.

For just a moment, it hadn't felt like she was an outsider looking in on their lives.

It had felt, if only for that single moment, like she'd never left them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Eight:**

Over the sound of Lilo and Stitch playing the guitar on the television, there was a knock at the front door of the Deveraux house.

"I'll get it," Jack murmured, lifting his arms from around his wife's shoulders and rising to his feet. "It's probably Lucas and Sami."

"Okay," Jenn replied softly, turning her attention back to the movie they had put in for the kids an hour ago. On the floor in front of the couch, their daughter Abby and their nephew Will were sprawled across the carpet in their pajamas, both half-asleep despite their protests that the movie couldn't be turned off because they were still watching it.

Carefully weaving his way around the kids and their blankets, Jack slipped out of the living room and made his way down the hall to the front door. He opened the door and stepped back, gesturing for the couple on the snow-covered steps to come inside. "Get in here," he ordered. "It's freezing out there."

"It sure is," his brother-in-law Lucas Roberts said, shaking snow off of his overcoat.

"You missed some," his wife informed him, reaching up a gloved hand to brush snowflakes out of his dark hair, and Jack had to smile.

"Thanks," Lucas replied.

"Hi, Jack," Sami greeted him, leaning in for a hug. "Thanks for watching Will so late for us tonight."

"No problem," Jack assured her, kissing her on the cheek. "You know that Jenn and I love that little boy to death, and Abby is always thrilled when he comes over. They had a great day after school today, we just settled them down about an hour ago to watch a movie."

"Good, then he's probably sleepy by now," Lucas mused, nodding his head. "Maybe he won't wake up on the ride home and we can get him into bed without a story tonight."

"Not in much of a story-reading mood?" Jack asked sympathetically.

"It's been a long day," Lucas answered with a sigh. "Let's leave it at that."

Jack nodded, then looked over at Sami inquisitively. "How did things go with your Mom today?"

"It was... interesting," Sami responded wearily. "It was so good to see her and to talk to her, to have her look right at me and just see me, but it's not going to be an easy road for her to recover. She really doesn't know what's real and what isn't- she still thinks she hit you over the head with a brick."

"Ouch," Jack said with a grimace, imagining that would have been quite painful. "Well, once they release her, I'll just have to pop in and show her how alive I really am then. That ought to convince her that she isn't a killer."

"Just crazy," Sami muttered.

Exchanging a glance with Lucas, Jack looked her over, taking in the weak set of her jaw, the tired look in her eyes. It was strange to see her like that, when the Sami they all knew and loved was so vibrant and strong, but he supposed that she was entitled to it considering the circumstances. Besides, over the past three years she had rarely shown so much as a glimmer of weakness, determined that she had to be strong for her father and her siblings, so it was actually sort of a relief to see her stumble just a little.

In the decade that he had been married to Jennifer, Jack had grown close to her family, especially her brothers, more so Lucas than Mike because Mike and his wife Carrie were living in Israel to be close to Mike's son Jeremy, but he had also become very good friends with Jenn's sister-in-law Sami over the years, mostly because they had a lot in common.

"Chin up, Shortcake," Jack instructed, earning an annoyed glare at the nickname he liked to use whenever he was trying to rile her up. Despite her insistence that he never, ever call her that, he knew that she didn't hate it half as much as she pretended to.

"What have I said about calling me that?" Sami demanded irritably.

"Not to do it?" Jack said innocently.

"And yet, you still do it anyway and I don't kill you," Sami pointed out, narrowing her eyes sharply. "Why is that?"

"Because you love me?" Jack suggested playfully, flashing her his most charming smile.

Sami rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth lifted of its own accord, and Jack winked at Lucas triumphantly. Getting Sami Roberts to smile when she didn't feel like it was no easy feat, although it did seem as though Lucas had some superhuman ability to do when no one else could.

"So Marlena is pretty confused, huh?" Jack asked, running a hand through his hair.

"Confused might be an understatement, man," Lucas replied grimly. "She still thinks people are dead who are alive, people are together who aren't, and keeps forgetting how old people are."

"Don't forget she was surprised to learn that you and I have been married for eight years," Sami added dryly, but there was a flicker of pain in her eyes at that thought, and Jack wondered just how Marlena was going to make it up to her children for everything her illness had put them through.

"Hey, at least one thing was accurate about us in her delusions," Lucas retorted with a smirk.

"Oh, really? What's that?"

"You were still lusting after my body, sweetheart," Lucas informed her smugly.

"In your dreams, General," Sami shot back.

"Oh, you're right about that," Lucas said, grinning slyly as he leered at her through lowered lids. "Each and every single night."

Exasperated, Sami turned to Jack with an indignant look. "Is that all you men ever think about?"

"Honestly?" Jack admitted ruefully. "Yes."

Rolling her pretty blue eyes, Sami looked over at her husband. "And I was not lusting after you in her delusions," she informed him stubbornly. "You were the one lusting after me... having fantasies, all those kisses you started, staring at me and licking your lips... it was all you, Lucas."

"Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that your mother was creating a fake love life for you?" Jack asked with a grimace.

"Better than the fact that she was dreaming that Belle was debating having sex with Shawn," Sami replied, making a face at the very thought of it. "I had to remind her twice that Belle and Shawn are cousins. And then there's the whole mess with Rex..."

"Not taking it too well, is he?" Jack guessed sympathetically.

"No," Sami sighed. "He's not, and I can't blame him. It's been so hard for him, having Mom not remember that he's her son, but at least before he could just write it off on her illness. Now that she's coherent and trying to get her life back again, I have a feeling things aren't going to go that smoothly with him. I wish Cassie was able to come home, it would be good for her right now, but she doesn't have a break from school for another month."

"Having you to lean on is good for him, too," Lucas pointed out, placing a supportive hand on the small of her back. "And Rex knows that Cassie's with you guys in spirit, the way Eric and Carrie are, too."

"He's right, Sami."

Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw that his wife had slipped out of the living room, presumably without disturbing the kids, and was coming up behind him in the hallway.

"Hey, Sis," Lucas said with a smile.

"Hi, Lucas." Jenn gave him a hug, then turned to Sami. "And speaking of Carrie, I talked to Mike this afternoon."

"You did?" Sami asked. "How is Carrie? Did he say how she was dealing with the news? I meant to call her, but I haven't had time yet since Daddy told us last night..."

"She's okay," Jenn assured her. "Mike said that she went in to work like normal today, then drove Jeremy and his friends to a movie since Robin had a doctor's appointment."

"Little Jeremy's not so little anymore," Lucas commented. "I feel old."

Jack was inclined to agree with him on that point. Not long after Mike and Carrie had gotten married, their lives had been changed drastically when Mike's ex-girlfriend Robin Jacobs returned to town with a boy in tow that turned out to be Mike's son.

While it had thrown Carrie for a loop at first, causing her to stay with John and Marlena for a few days, she had decided in the end that her marriage could survive. Maybe it was because she loved Mike enough to deal with the sudden reappearance of his first love and their son, or maybe it was simply because she herself had been in Jeremy's shoes a long time ago, when her mother Anna returned and broke up John and Marlena's first marriage.

_How time flies,_ Jack thought with a wry chuckle. Jeremy had only been eight when he arrived in Salem, and he was already fourteen. He understood why Mike had decided to take the job in Israel, where Robin lived, because he had already missed out on eight years of his son's life, he couldn't bear to miss out on more.

"No, he's not so little," Jenn agreed with her brother. "Our nephew is growing up fast. He's a teenager now, and I have a feeling that Mike, Robin and Carrie will have their hands full soon enough."

"Thank God we've got five more years until Will hits the teens," Sami murmured. "Poor Carrie, on top of all of this mess with Mom, she's got to keep a teenage boy in check."

"Actually, I think Robin is taking Jeremy on a trip with her and her family for the next two weeks," Jenn told them. "It's technically Mike's month, but he wanted Jeremy to be able to spend some time with Robin's mother since her health isn't holding up too well as of late. Which is why Mike said that Carrie is considering taking some time off from work and coming back to Salem for a while."

"God, that would be nice," Sami sighed heavily. "It's been a year since she was last home, and I know it would mean so much to Daddy if she were able to be here right now."

"I'm sure it would," Jenn agreed. "Will and Abby are asleep on the floor in the living room, so if you want to tiptoe in and grab Will, I'll get Abby and take her upstairs at the same time."

"Good idea," Lucas replied, glancing over at his wife. "I'll get Will."

"Okay."

Jenn and Lucas disappeared down the hall towards the living room, and Sami closed her eyes, leaning back against the wall, massaging her temples with her fingers.

"Headache?" Jack asked, his brow furrowing in concern.

"Oh, yeah," Sami muttered without opening her eyes. "I feel like there's a rock band banging on their drums inside my head."

"I've got some aspirin in the kitchen..." Jack offered.

"Thanks, but I already took some," Sami replied, giving him a grateful look. "I'm just tired, I guess. Like Lucas said, it's been a long day. With everything going on at work, and then this whole thing with my Mom... I feel like I need to just take a long, hot bubblebath for the next twelve hours."

"Twelve hours, hmm?" Jack echoed. "You'd be pretty wrinkled by then, Shortcake."

"It would be worth it to just have a few hours to relax," Sami insisted wistfully. "Without having to worry about Mom or how Daddy, Rex, Brady and Belle are coping, or how Will is doing in school and if Cassie is getting into trouble up in New York, how I'm going to find time to help Nicole plan the wedding and whether or not we're going to have the summer line finished by the deadline." 

"Wow," Jack said with a low whistle. "Quite a load on your plate there, Shortcake."

Sami gave him a weak glare, but didn't protest the nickname this time.

"At least this weekend is Valentine's Day, right?" Jack reminded her helpfully. "You and Lucas can have a nice, romantic night all to yourselves."

"Unless something comes up with Mom, or Rex falls apart after seeing her, or Belle and Philip have a fight or-"

"Sami," Jack said gently, but not without forcefulness. "Has anyone ever told you that you worry entirely too much?"

"I can't help it," Sami murmured. "My family is the most important thing in the world to me."

"I know," Jack assured her, reaching out to chuck her under the chin lightly. "We're family, too, remember? I just don't like to see you so swamped down, Sami. You're only twenty-six years old, you're a mother, the Vice President of a major design company, and on top of all of that, you're trying to take care of everyone else. Maybe you just need to take some time to yourself, hit the spa or something. I'm sure Jennifer would be more than happy to go with you."

"That's not a bad idea," Sami conceded. "And you're probably right, Jack. I do need to slow down, huh?"

"Might be a good idea," Jack agreed. "Before you burn yourself out."

"Yeah," Sami sighed, then perked up as she caught sight of Lucas headed their way, cradling their sleeping son in his arms. "Did you get his bear?" she asked softly, referring to Mr. Fuzzy, which even Jack knew that his nephew could not possibly sleep without.

Lucas lifted one arm slightly so that they could see the teddy bear tucked under the crook of his elbow. "Mind grabbing it?"

Sami lifted the bear into her hands, smiling down at it fondly, and then pressed a feather-light kiss to Will's dark hair, brushing it out of his eyes as he slept. He stirred slightly, but she just stroked his hair, whispering gently. "It's okay, little man, just sleep."

"Jenn take Abby upstairs?" Jack asked Lucas and his brother-in-law nodded. "I'll head up after her, then. You two drive carefully, okay? The snow is coming down out there pretty hard tonight."

"We'll be safe," Sami promised. "Lucas is a good driver."

"Night," Jack said, kissing her on the cheek. "Take care, Lucas."

"Bye, Jack," Lucas replied as he and Sami made their way out the door. "And thanks again for watching Will."

"Our pleasure," Jack assured them, and watched as they made their way down the icy steps. He didn't shut the door until they reached the car, then he locked it and turned off the downstairs lights one by one before climbing the stairs.

He found Jenn backing out of Abby's room, gently pulling the door shut behind her, and she smiled at him as she nodded her head towards their own bedroom. Jack followed her obediently, staying silent until they were safely inside with the door closed behind them, and then he wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder, and peered down at her stomach.

"Any thoughts on what the sex will be?" he asked, letting one hand splay across the rounded surface.

"I keep telling you, it's a boy," Jenn laughed.

"I don't think so," Jack insisted. "It's another girl. Little Jacqueline."

Jenn snorted, shaking her head. "You've got to be kidding me. Jacqueline?"

"What's wrong with Jacqueline?" Jack demanded.

"What are we going to call her for short? Jackie?" Jenn asked skeptically.

"Maybe," Jack said with a shrug.

"It doesn't matter," Jenn argued confidently. "Because it's a boy."

"Keep dreaming, sweetheart," Jack told her, kissing her on the cheek.

"Mmm," Jenn murmured sleepily. "Do you think Sami's going to be okay?"

"Sami Roberts?" Jack scoffed. "She's one tough cookie, of course she'll be okay. But if you were just to happen to invite her along to the spa one day next week, she might be even better than okay."

"Good idea," Jenn replied with a yawn. "Maybe you and Lucas can take the kids to the park or something."

"Our kids?" Jack snorted. "More like the arcade."

"Whatever you want," Jenn said, padding over towards their bed. "As long as it means you stay out of trouble."

"You mean as long as we keep the kids out of trouble, right?" Jack asked, dropping down onto the bed beside his wife.

"Jack," she said pointedly. "When you and Lucas are together, we send the kids along to keep an eye on the two of you."

"I resent that," Jack grumbled.

"If you keep talking while I'm trying to go to sleep, I'm going to resent you," Jenn retorted. "Shut up and go to sleep, Jack."

"Yes, ma'am."


	9. Chapter 9

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Nine:**

"I'm a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub me the right way..."

Suppressing a laugh, Philip Kiriakis pondered whether or not to share the rather racy thought those words had caused to pop into his head, but glancing over at his girlfriend as she floated on her pink inner tube, singing along to the radio blaring from the speakers on the wall, he decided it probably wouldn't be appreciated at the moment.

"Having fun?" he asked instead.

Belle Brady didn't even bother to lift her head or open her eyes, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment as they floated around in the heated, indoor pool located inside the mansion where Philip had grown up. Although he had moved out of his parents' home after graduating high school, opting to share an apartment with his best friend Shawn Brady, who just happened to be Belle's cousin, Philip found himself dropping by the mansion on a regular basis anyway. Sometimes it was to use the facilities, like today, sometimes it was to visit his parents, and sometimes it was just because he'd gotten a craving for those meatball subs that Henderson used to make him when no one was looking.

_I really am a spoiled brat,_ Philip chuckled to himself.

"Mmm-hmm," Belle answered with a content sigh. "This was a great idea, Phil. I really needed this."

That was precisely why Philip had suggested they cut their afternoon classes at Salem University and do some leisurely swimming instead. He knew how worked up she was about the whole mess with her mother, and he wanted to take her mind off of it for a while, give her a chance to relax.

Plus it didn't hurt that he got to stare at her in her little pink bikini for a few hours.

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, babe," Philip told her, sliding his hands into the water in order to paddle his own inner tube closer to hers. "This beats class any day, right?"

"Definitely," Belle agreed, a smile crossing her lips even though her eyes remained closed.

"And you love me for suggesting it, right?" Philip asked, turning himself so that his feet were facing her.

"Always," Belle replied.

"Good," Philip said, and with that he kicked up a splash of water, earning a shriek from his girlfriend as she fell off her inner tube, getting soaked in the process.

"Philip Robert Kiriakis, I'm going to kill you!" she cried, sputtering as she wiped her wet hair out of her eyes and lunged for him.

Laughing, Philip ditched his inner tube to start swimming away from her. He was the stronger swimmer, so he kept his strokes light and carefree, allowing her to catch up to him. Even though he heard her approaching from behind, he decided to be fair and let her jump up onto his shoulders, pushing him down beneath the surface of the water.

He reached out and grabbed her by the ankle, yanking her under with him.

They resurfaced together, both laughing and coughing, and Philip lifted a hand to brush a strand of wet hair away from her eyes. "You look like a drowned rat," he informed her. "A drowned blond rat."

"Thanks a lot, jerk," Belle retorted, smacking him in the chest.

Philip caught her hand, tugging her closer to him, and slipped his arms under the water to wrap them around her waist, drawing her in for a kiss. He felt her melt against him, her skin wet and warm against his bare chest, and he fleetingly wondered whether or not Henderson would mind if they snuck up to his old room for a while.

_No,_ he stopped that train of thought abruptly. _Today is about giving Belle a chance to relax with everything that's going on with her family right now._

And going upstairs would be anything but relaxing.

Slowly easing the kiss, he broke away and smiled down at Belle when she opened her eyes. "Forgive me?" he asked playfully.

Belle gave a heavy sigh, trying not smile. "I suppose so."

"Good," Philip said, grinning, and gave her a quick kiss on the nose before swimming over to the side of the pool and leaning his back against the wall, resting his arms on the tiled floor surrounding the pool.

Belle followed, coming to a halt in front of him and moving her arms across the surface of the water absently, causing small waves to move off in opposite directions.

"Are you nervous about going to see your Mom tomorrow?" Philip asked her after a long moment of companionable silence.

"Terrified is more like it," Belle replied bleakly. "I don't have a clue what to expect or what to say to her, Philip. My stomach's all knotted up and I feel sick just thinking about it."

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Philip assured her. "And your Dad will be there, right? You know he'll do everything he can to try and make the experience easier on you guys."

"Yeah," Belle agreed quietly. "Sami saw her the other day, and she says that Mom was almost normal, just confused. Almost like she was her old self, you know?"

"That's good, right?" Philip inquired helpfully. "I mean, that means she should be able to adjust easier, doesn't it?"

"I think so," Belle said with a nod, biting her lip. "But she's still got those... those other memories in her head, Philip. I wish there was a way that Lexie could just erase them, but there isn't. She says that eventually, Mom should start to forget them and remember the real stuff, but it could take months, years even." She bowed her head, watching the water swirl around them. "I don't know how we're going to get through this."

"Hey, hey," Philip murmured, lifting her chin with his thumb. "I'll tell you how you're going to get through this- as a family, like you always do. Your Dad loves you guys so much, there's nothing he wouldn't do for you. The same goes for your grandparents, your Uncle Bo and Aunt Hope, even Shawn. And you know I'm here for you, no matter what, even if it's just to listen to you complain."

"I don't complain," Belle protested, and when he raised an eyebrow, she amended, "Much."

"Don't worry, babe," Philip said, leaning over to kiss the top of her head. "Given the circumstances, I think you're entitled to all the complaining you want right now."

"Maybe," Belle murmured doubtfully. "But you don't see Rex or Brady complaining, and you certainly don't see Sami doing it."

"First of all," Philip told her pointedly. "Your brothers Brady, who we're going to forget is technically my half-nephew, because that just sounds incestuous, and Rex aren't exactly known for sharing their feelings, sweetheart. They keep stuff bottled up inside, it's a guy thing."

"That doesn't apply to Sami, though," Belle responded.

"No," Philip conceded, unable to keep from smiling. "It certainly doesn't."

"I don't know what I would have done without her these past few years," Belle murmured. "She's really been there for me, you know? And for Daddy, Brady and Rex, too. I feel so selfish sometimes, piling all of my problems on her when I know she's got problems of her own. I mean, I'm just a college kid with a nice internship at Basic Black thanks to Sami and your Mom, but she's got a company to run and a son to raise, and then she's keeping the rest of us from falling apart..." she trailed off, shaking her head in wonder. "How does she do it, Philip?"

"Sami's a strong woman," Philip replied, shrugging. "She always has been."

"Is that why you had a major crush on her when you were twelve?" Belle asked teasingly, looking up at him with a sparkle in her blue eyes.

"That and she happens to be pretty hot," Philip retorted with a smirk, reaching out to stroke her wet hair gently. "Which seems to run in the family."

"You're just trying to get me into bed, flatterer," Belle accused lightly.

Philip smirked down at her. "That happened a long time ago, sweetheart."

It had been during their junior year of high school that they decided they were ready for that step in their relationship, after dating for a year and a half. They were probably more reserved about it than most of their friends, if only because they both had firsthand knowledge of the consequences that sex could have. Philip had gotten more than his share of safe sex talks from not only his parents, but Lucas and Sami, too, just like Belle had, and since his brother and sister-in-law knew what they were talking about, he had heeded their advice.

And now, after nearly five years of dating, Philip could safely say that anything life threw their way, he and Belle could handle.

"Seriously, though," he told her, getting back to the subject at hand. "Sami's always been great to me, even when she and Lucas were just friends. She never thought I was a pest the way he did, and when she moved into the mansion, she genuinely enjoyed my company, so I had someone to talk to other than Henderson while Mom, Dad and Lucas were at Titan. And when she let me help out with Will, I dunno, I felt important."

"Mmm," Belle sighed, closing her eyes as his fingers combed through her hair. "Sami's a good sister."

"And a good sister-in-law," Philip added.

Instead of answering, Belle gave a soft moan of appreciation, which turned into a groan of disappointment when he stilled his fingers in her hair.

Smirking, Philip lifted her chin, and bent his head to capture her lips in a long, dizzying kiss, savoring the feel of her wet lips against his. After a moment, her arms came up to wrap around his neck, and their bodies, slick from the water, pressed together, causing all rational thought to slip away.

So caught up in exploring his girlfriend as his hands roamed over her curves and he lost himself in her kisses, Philip didn't hear the door open, nor the footsteps approaching.

He did, however, hear the noise that sounded suspiciously like someone clearing their throat.

Breaking away from the kiss, Philip turned to see Henderson standing at the edge of the pool just behind him and looking down at him with a pointed look that wasn't without a hint of reprimand.

Philip gave the butler a rueful smile, running a hand through his wet hair. "Sorry, Henderson," he apologized with an embarrassed chuckle. "Got a bit carried away there."

"Indeed, sir," Henderson observed evenly. "One might suggest that in the future, you and Ms. Brady 'get carried away' in private, behind a locked door?"

Properly chastised, Philip nodded his agreement, aware of Belle hiding behind him, her face buried against his shoulder in utter mortification. "Good advice," Philip replied weakly. "Um, did you need something?"

"There is a phone call for you in the study, Master Philip," Henderson informed him.

"For me?" Philip echoed in surprise. "Here? How did anyone know that I was here?"

"You'll have to ask Master Lucas that, sir," Henderson told him, holding out a towel to him as Philip climbed out of the pool. "But I imagine he simply turned on the GPS tracking device in your car."

Philip groaned, toweling himself off. "I can't believe Dad put that in my car. It's like he's spying on me or something. Doesn't he trust me?"

"I'm quite sure Master Victor trusts you to attend all of your classes as required, sir," Henderson said, with a wry rebuke.

"I'm going to get Rex to disconnect that thing," Philip muttered under his breath. "Henderson, will you get Belle a drink or something to eat if she's hungry, while I see what Lucas wants?"

"But of course, sir," Henderson said, and turned his attention to Belle, who was still lounging in the pool. "What may I get for you, Ms. Brady?"

Heading for the door, Philip didn't hear her answer, but he was certain she would ask for a coke, like always. Making his way towards the study, he wondered anxiously if Lucas had been able to have any success with the favor he'd asked of his big brother for the special evening he had planned for Belle this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Their first Valentine's Day together, all those years ago, he had gone a bit overboard. A fancy dinner at the Penthouse Grille, he'd passed up Tuscany because he knew he'd get a discount from Maggie Horton since Lucas was her nephew and he'd wanted to impress Belle, and then he'd had the pilot of the Titan jet take them to see a Broadway show.

In hindsight, he'd been showing off, but at least Belle had been touched by the effort.

In the years since then, their Valentine's Day dates had been less extravagant and more personal, and each year he tried hard to top the previous one. Last year they'd spent the evening out on the yacht, watching the annual red fireworks in the night sky overhead.

And this year... well, his biggest concern wasn't even the romance factor anymore, it was just making sure that Belle had a wonderful, memorable evening after everything went down with her mother.

Closing the study door behind him, Philip crossed the room to the desk and picked up the phone which Henderson had left off the hook. "Hello?" he asked.

"Phil," his older brother replied. "Playing hooky are we, young man?"

Rolling his eyes, Philip wrapped the towel around his waist. "Like you never did it," he retorted. "What do you have for me, man?"

"Aunt Maggie's going to prepare a nice picnic dinner for you guys, complete with the good tablecloth and silverware," Lucas answered. "Sami gave her a list of some of Belle's favorite foods, so don't be surprised if there's a huge thing of chocolate mousse in there somewhere."

Philip chuckled, leaning against the desk. "Belle would love that."

"Women and their chocolate," Lucas observed wryly. "Anyway, you've already got everything else taken care of, right? There's nothing else you needed from me?"

"Nope, that was all, bro," Philip confirmed. "I appreciate you arranging things with Maggie for me, thanks."

"No problem," Lucas assured him. "Anything for my favorite kid brother."

"I'm your only kid brother," Philip pointed out dryly.

"Minor detail," Lucas replied. "I'd better go, I've got a meeting in ten minutes and I need to go over my notes first."

"Good luck," Philip told him. "Tell my Dad I said I'm going to stay for dinner tonight, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Lucas promised. "Later, Phil."

"Later, man," Philip said and hung the phone back up on its cradle.

Returning to the pool room, he found Belle sitting in one of the lawn chairs, her terry cloth pant and zip-up hoodie set, her wet hair pulled back into a ponytail, and idly flipping through the pages of the latest issue of Bella magazine that his mother had left laying around.

"Catching up on your reading?" he asked with a smirk, dropping down onto the chair beside her.

"Just supporting the family business," Belle retorted. "What did Lucas want?"

"My help planning a nice surprise for Sami," Philip said smoothly, knowing that it was perfectly believable, even if Lucas was never one to need help with that kind of thing. After all, Lucas had once spontaneously decided to take Sami to Paris for a week, conveniently dropping in to visit their sister Billie while he was at it, just because she had been having a tough week at work.

"Really?" Belle smiled eagerly, her magazine forgotten. "That's great! Sami needs a night off, if anyone deserves it, it's her."

"I couldn't agree with you more," Philip replied, and he meant it. Hopefully, Lucas would taken advantage of the fact that Alice Horton was keeping Will for the night and give Sami a night of romance and laughter, because she needed it.

"Speaking of Valentine's Day..." Belle said slyly. "What do you have planned for us?"

"Ah, that's for me to know and you to find out, Isabella," Philip retorted with a smirk. "You really need to learn some patience."

"Patience isn't my thing, you know that," Belle shot back, giving him a pout. "Can't I even get a hint?"

"Nice try," Philip snorted. "But that won't work."

"No?" Belle raised an eyebrow. "Then how about this?"

Rising from her seat, she crossed the space between them and settled in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him with wild abandon, pressing herself so close to him that there wasn't even enough room for air to pass between them.

Realizing that he was doomed if she kept up this torture, Philip decided to fight fire with fire and scooped her up in his arms, never breaking the kiss, and moved towards the edge of the pool again. As soon as he felt the ledge with his toes, he dropped her, and she shrieked just before she disappeared under the water.

"Philip!" she cried furiously when she surfaced. "My clothes are soaking!"

"Yeah, I can see that," Philip retorted, and when she lunged for his ankles, he danced aside, then dove into the pool on his own. "It's a good look for you," he added once he came back up for air.

"Do you have any last words before you die?" Belle demanded, her blue eyes narrowing sharply.

"Only three," Philip said, drawing closer to her with each word he spoke. "I. Love. You."

Belle's expression softened, her eyes doing that melting thing they did whenever he said those words, and she sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "What on earth am I going to do with you, Philip Kiriakis?"

"I could make a list if you want," Philip offered with a smirk, and ducked the spray of water she sent his way, then splashed some of his own.

For the next twenty minutes, they engaged in a laughing, shrieking- on Belle's part anyway- water fight to end all water fights.

And even though his skin was probably so caked with chlorine that he was probably going to need to take two showers instead of one, it was worth it to see the smile on Belle's face.

Especially when he was certain it would be painfully absent tomorrow when she went to see her mother.


	10. Chapter 10

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Ten:**

It was, Brady decided, one of the most eerie places he'd ever been in his life.

The sanitarium was nice enough, clean and professional while giving its patients as comfortable a setting as possible, and yet it sent shivers down his spine every time he stepped within its walls.

Maybe it was because of the nightmares, the dreams he'd been having ever since Marlena was first admitted all those years ago. He knew he wasn't the only one, Belle had confided her own nightmares to him in tears and more than once he'd heard the cries coming from Rex's room, and even though he had no proof, he was certain that those same dreams had plagued Sami, as well, because some mornings there was just a haunted look in her eyes, even if she tried to hide it.

If dreams really were the manifestation of the innermost desires and fears a human being possessed, then he supposed that it made sense, really. Because ever since Marlena's commitment to the mental institution, Brady had wondered, in the darkest corner of his mind, if maybe he wouldn't one day suffer the same fate. True, he wasn't her biological son, but in every way that counted Marlena Brady was his mother, and if it could happen to her, then it could happen to anyone.

Even him.

"Brave faces, you guys," Sami instructed, giving them all a sympathetic and understanding smile. "We don't want to make Mom cry, right?"

"Right," Rex agreed in a thick voice, and Brady knew that he, too, had been lost in heavy thoughts.

"Belle, sweetie?" Sami asked, kneeling down in front of their little sister, who had her face in her hands, and touching a hand to her golden hair. "Are you okay?"

"I can't do this, Sami," Belle whimpered, lifting tear-filled eyes.

"Yes, you can," Sami replied gently, but with a firm tone. "And you won't be alone, honey, we're all going to be right there with you. I know it's hard, I know it's scary, but we've got to be brave, for Mom's sake. Because she's just as scared as you are. This is all new and frightening for her, and she doesn't really understand this life anymore, which is why we've got to do this together, okay? We've got to show her that we still love her and that we're going to be there for her, every step of the way."

"Sami's right, Tink," Brady spoke up, earning himself a grateful look from their older sister. "It's not going to be easy, but we'll get through this together."

"We always do," Rex added, ruffling Belle's hair affectionately and then grinning at the scowl he caused to cross her face. "We're the Brady Bunch, remember?"

Belle smiled weakly at the ancient joke, which they'd all heard too many times to count. "Does that make you Bobby?"

"Of course," Rex replied wryly. "You're Cindy, Brady here is Peter, Eric is Greg, Sami's Marcia and Cassie is Jan."

"What about Carrie?" Sami asked in amusement.

"She can be Alice," Rex retorted with a smirk, and Belle giggled, probably imaging their oldest sister wearing the blue and white maid's outfit. "After all, she was the one always telling us to pick up our toys, wasn't she?"

"Don't let her hear you say that," Brady advised lightly.

They were sitting in a small waiting room decorated in gentle hues of yellow and green, with oil paintings of fields and flowers adorning the wall across from the plush, oversized floral armchairs that Brady found were much more comfortable than they looked.

Of course, not even the most comfortable chairs in the world could make him any less anxious about why they were there.

Glancing towards the door their father had disappeared behind ten minutes ago, Brady shifted in his chair, not even noticing that he was tapping his fingers on the armrest until all three of his siblings turned to give him an irritated look.

"Sorry," he murmured sheepishly.

Belle smiled weakly and Rex chuckled, shaking his head, before turning back to whatever conversation he'd been having with their little sister. Sami looked at him for a long moment, clearly trying to assess how he was doing, so he gave her what he hoped was a convincing smile, and even though she let Belle draw her into their conversation, he had a feeling she hadn't really fallen for it.

Regardless, she wasn't going to call attention to anything, for which he was grateful. He really just needed a few minutes to gather his thoughts before they went in to see Marlena. It had been three months since his last visit, during which Marlena had barely even noticed his presence, muttering to herself in the corner about a circus and a tiger.

Even knowing that his stepmother was lucid and coherent now, Brady was still uneasy about seeing her again. It was hard to forget her episodes, and he wasn't sure what to expect from this meeting.

The sound of the door opening caught his attention, and they all looked up to see their father standing in the doorway. "She's ready," he announced, giving them an encouraging smile.

Belle bit her lip and Brady exchanged an anxious look with Rex, but they all rose to their feet at Sami's prodding, letting her steer them towards the small suite that Marlena was occupying. As he passed his father, John squeezed his shoulder wordlessly, and, swallowing hard, Brady followed his older sister into the room.

It was decorated much like the waiting room, meant to convey a relaxing setting, both for the patient and the visitors, and as he scanned the room curiously, Brady noted that it wasn't a bad setup. There was a television in the sitting area, as well as one in the adjoining bedroom, and a the open door to the bathroom revealed that she not only had her own shower, but John had brought some of her makeup and toiletries from home.

"Doc?" John said, drawing Brady's attention to the couch, where his stepmother was sitting. "The kids are here."

Marlena Brady was sitting a little too straight, her hands folded neatly in her lap, looking to a casual observer every bit the professional psychiatrist that she had once been, even down to the casual business suit that she was wearing, a cream colored ensemble that must have come from her closet at the house.

Brady was not a casual observer, though, and saw how white his stepmother's knuckles were, how thin her lips were as she tried not to show just how nervous she was, and it made him want to rush into her arms and let her hold him like she hadn't done since he was a little boy.

For a long moment, they all just stared at each other, and even though he couldn't see Rex and Belle's faces, he knew that they were feeling the same tortured emotions he was. Marlena licked her lips, parting them as if to speak, but no words would come out, and so they were left in silence until Sami took charge of the situation.

"Hi, Mom," she said, putting on a bright smile as she strode purposefully across the room to lean down and give Marlena a long hug. "You look wonderful this morning."

"There are some advantages to having a private shower," Marlena replied with a soft chuckle that sounded a bit like a sigh of relief. "How's Will?"

"He's good," Sami answered, taking a seat on the couch beside her. "I actually have something for you here that's from him." With that she reached into the bag she'd brought with her and pulled out a fuzzy blue teddy bear that Brady had seen plenty of over the years. "Do you recognize it?"

A strange, far-off expression crossed Marlena's face as she took the bear. "It looks so familiar," she murmured.

"You gave it to Will when he was four, so that he could hold onto it while he got his shot," Sami explained. "He'd clutch it to his little chest whenever he was scared, so he wants you to hold onto it for a while, so that Mr. Bear can help you be brave, too."

Brady smiled, never ceasing to be amazed by his nephew.

Marlena's eyes were watery and she stroked the bear's head fondly, clearly trying not to cry. "He's such a sweet boy," she told Sami appreciatively. "Tell him I'll take good care of Mr. Bear for him."

"I will," Sami promised.

After a few moments of admiring the teddy bear, Marlena sat it down on the couch next to her, and looked up at her children, her blue eyes glistening as she looked them over. "Look at you three," she said at last, her voice choked with emotion. "My babies are all grown up."

"I'm the youngest and I'm twenty, Mom," Belle pointed out softly. "We're not much of babies anymore."

"You'll always be my babies, sweetheart," Marlena insisted tearfully, standing up shakily, with Sami keeping a hand on her back supportively. "And you've gotten so beautiful, Isabella."

"Sami's beautiful," Belle corrected with a blush.

"And so are you, baby-girl," Marlena assured her, reaching out a hand to touch her golden hair tenderly. "You're so very beautiful, and I'm so lucky to have you as a daughter."

That seemed to be too much for Belle's composure, for she suddenly fell into their mother's arms, sobbing, and Marlena wrapped her arms around her youngest child, murmuring reassuringly into her hair as she rocked Belle gently until her cries began to subside.

When Belle pulled back, sniffling, her cheeks were red and tearstained, but she was smiling. "I missed you so much, Mommy," she told her hoarsely.

"I missed you, too, baby-girl," Marlena whispered, her own tears sliding down her cheeks now as she dried Belle's tears with her thumbs. "More than you'll ever know."

With a small laugh, Belle stepped out of the way, moving to sit down on the couch with Sami, who promptly put her arms around their little sister, and Belle rested her head on Sami's shoulder.

Marlena's gaze fell on Brady then, and he swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Brady," she said softly, holding out her hands to him, and he took them in his own, squeezing warmly.

"Welcome home, Marlena," he replied thickly, his eyes stinging with moisture.

"Oh, sweetheart," Marlena sighed, tears spilling down her cheeks as she pulled him into a grateful embrace that he didn't ever want to leave.

They didn't speak any other words, there was no need, somehow he knew from that one hug that she understood just how fiercely he had missed her presence in his life over the past few years, and how much it meant to have her back again.

When they finally separated, Brady wiped his eyes on his sleeve ruefully, which made Marlena's smile grow even broader, and then he, too, moved to the couch, taking up the space on the other side of Belle and allowing her to take his hand in hers as they turned their attention to Rex, who until now had stood silently just inside the doorway.

Mother and son stared at one another in painfully emotional silence for a long moment, and even from across the room, Brady could see the tears that Rex was fighting to keep at bay. Marlena must have seen them, too, for she lifted a trembling hand to her mouth, a gasp that sounded suspiciously like a half-sob escaped her lips.

"Rex," she whispered. "Oh, baby, I'm so... I'm so sorry."

Rex's adam's apple bobbed slightly. "Don't worry about it," he rasped, forcing a weak smile.

"That's not possible, sweetie," Marlena replied, shaking her head sadly. "I can't even begin to imagine what this had been like for you. I can't believe that I could forget my own son..."

"Do you remember?" Rex asked hopefully. "Anything?"

"I remember," Marlena said slowly. "How much I love you, how proud I am of you. But other than a few flashes of half-shadowy memory, I haven't made much progress."

"Oh," Rex murmured, trying to hide his disappointment, and Brady's heart went out to his stepbrother, whose head hung miserably.

"Lexie says that it will take some time," Marlena apologized softly, biting her lip in the same manner that Sami did from time to time. "But my memories should start to come back on their own as I'm submersed back into my old life."

"And if they don't?" Belle asked quietly, voicing the secret fear they'd all been harboring.

"They will," Marlena assured them with a confident smile. "I'm sure of it."

"You can't know that," Rex muttered, downcast.

"Yes, I can," Marlena replied gently, reaching out for his hand and pulling it close to her chest. "I know, because I can feel it, right here." A hesitant, hopeful smile crossed her lips. "Just like I can feel how desperately we both need a hug right now."

It was such a motherly thing to say, such a Marlena thing to say, that Rex gave a soft chuckle and stepped forward to let her wrap her arms around him. For a heartbeat or so, he was able to keep his composure, but then it seemed to finally sink in, and he buried his face in Marlena's shoulder, presumably so that no one would see him crying.

Everyone pretended they didn't see his shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

Once Rex had gotten himself together, he joined the rest of them on the couch, squeezing in beside Sami, who laced her fingers with his and smiled.

"Well, now," Marlena said softly, blinking at her tears. "If Eric, Carrie and Cassie were here, this would be a perfect family reunion."

"They wanted to be here," John assured her, coming up and putting his arm around her shoulders. "And they send their love."

"Besides," Sami pointed out wryly. "Four out of seven isn't bad."

"Seven," Marlena murmured in disbelief. "John, we're like the Brady Bunch!"

Startled, Brady exchanged a look of surprise with his siblings, and Marlena, noticing, turned to John, who had a slight smile on his face. "It's a running joke in this town," he explained. "Has been since the kids were little."

"Carrie's Alice," Rex announced helpfully, unable to keep from flashing the lopsided smirk of his.

Marlena pressed her lips together, trying not to smile at that. "I see."

"Well, I for one think this may just be the best day I've had in years," John announced, drawing his wife closer. "For the first time in years, I've got you all in the same room."

They all smiled, knowing exactly what he meant.


	11. Chapter 11

**Altered Reality**

**Chapter Eleven:**

Lucas Roberts was breathless.

There weren't many things that could take his breath away and leave him utterly speechless, but his wife was at the top of that list.

He was laying in the dark of their room, running his fingers through her long, golden hair, with her head resting on his chest. He could tell she was asleep by the shallow breath that spilled onto his bare chest, and the gentle rise and fall of her small form against his.

Moonlight streamed in through the skylight overhead, bathing them in a soft, silver light. The shadows danced across Sami's peaceful face, and Lucas smiled as he traced her delicate features with his thumb, caressing her cheek tenderly.

After nearly nine years of marriage, he loved the fact that she could still make him feel so... amazed whenever he was able to watch her sleep, the steady rhythm of her breathing lulling him into a peaceful state. It was calming, somehow, to just sit in the dark of their room and appreciate the blessings in his life.

After all, he was a lucky man.

He had a dream job at Titan, one that he not only excelled at, but actually enjoyed, and it allowed him to give his wife and son everything they could ever want in life. He was surrounded by family and friends, as chilling as it was to think about, if anything ever happened to him, he wouldn't need to worry about Sami and Will, because there were so many people who he knew would be there to take care of them.

More than anything, though, he cherished his wife and son. Will was an incredible kid, bright and energetic, full of life and adventure, and there was nothing quite like the feeling he got when his son rushed into his arms after winning a baseball game. Sometimes it was hard to believe that he had helped create this little life, but he could see himself in Will, in his smile and the tilt of his head.

His laugh, though, was all Sami.

Sometimes Lucas wondered just what he had done to deserve them, this perfect little boy and his mother, who wasn't just the most beautiful woman he had ever known, but his match in every way.

How on earth had he gotten so lucky as to marry his best friend?

Sami stirred in her sleep, nuzzling closer to him, and Lucas smiled.

Her hair had fallen over her face to expose one shoulder, which was bare save for the thin strap of her baby blue camisole, the perfect color to macth the blue and white striped pajama pants she wore with them, a present from Will that he had helped their son pick out for her on her last birthday.

Lifting her hair away from her face with his fingers, Lucas sighed gently.

Only Sami had this affect on him, only she could make him forget the entire world, could make him loose control of his thoughts, his emotions, his actions. She'd always been able to do so, even when they were kids. There had just been something about her that intrigued him, something that drew him to her, like a moth to a flame.

Sami stirred again, and this time she opened her eyes, blinking hazily. "Hi," she said softly.

Lucas smiled. "Hi yourself."

She pushed up on her elbows and peered at him curiously. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"I was just thinking," he explained lightly.

"About what?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow.

"You," Lucas replied honestly. "Will. How I'm the luckiest man in the world."

"I thought you said Hugh Heffner was the luckiest man in the world?" Sami retorted with a smirk, her pale blue eyes sparkling in amusement.

"Second luckiest," Lucas assured her, leaning in for a quick kiss. "I'd take you over a dozen Playmates any day."

"Mmm, good answer, General," Sami chuckled, nuzzling against his neck sleepily. "I guess that means I won't trade you in for Johnny Depp after all."

"How generous of you," Lucas retorted dryly, lazily running his fingers through her golden locks.

"I'm a generous kind of girl," Sami yawned.

"I know you are," Lucas said, leering down at her with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

Sami rolled her eyes and hit him with a pillow.

Grinning, Lucas drew her closer so he could wrap his arms around her slender waist and rest his chin atop her head. A soft sigh of contentment escaped Sami's lips, and he felt her relax against him, leaning her head back to rest on his shoulder.

They sat like that for a few moments, just enjoying the tranquility of being together with no distractions for once. No cell phones ringing, no paperwork brought home from the office, no television blaring cartoons in the background, no homework to help their son with, just each other.

And the very subject they'd been avoiding hanging in the air around them.

"Tomorrow's a big day, huh?" Lucas asked quietly.

"I guess so," Sami murmured.

"Lexie said that discharge process would only take about half an hour, so they should be en route to the Pub by three or so," he mused thoughtfully. "If we're going to help your grandparents set up, we should probably be at the Pub by two, don't you think?"

"We?" Sami echoed in surprise. "Grandma talked you into it, too?"

Lucas laughed ruefully. "Actually, it was Gran. Caroline was over for tea when I stopped by this afternoon, and while I was helping myself to a doughnut, they reeled me in."

"That sounds like them, alright."

"Never underestimate the little old ladies in this town," Lucas suggested with a wink. "They're a lot slyer than they let on."

"Don't I know it," Sami muttered. "Grandma used to trick us into helping out back in high school when the wait-staff was short, remember? She even got you in on it once or twice, I recall."

"What can I say?" Lucas shrugged. "I look good in the green apron. It was good for business, drew in a lot of women, they came to admire my handsome face and ended up staying for lunch."

Sami snorted, not buying it for a second. "More like they bought lunch to avoid having to put up with you winking at them every time you walked by."

"Uh huh, sure. Anyway, I told Caroline that we'd both help set up for the party. I voulenteered Philip's services, too."

"And does Philip know this?"

"He will when I stop by his apartment to pick him up," Lucas replied with a smirk. "If he has plans, I'll just point out that it would make Belle happy, and he'll be a good little boyfriend and do as he's told."

"You enjoy using Belle to lead him around by the nose, don't you?" Sami accused, narrowing her eyes.

"Hey, he deserves it after all the crap he gave me about being whipped when we got married," Lucas reminded her. "I consider this well-earned payback."

"You would," Sami said, rolling her eyes.

"Like you never give Rex a hard time about the way he does whatever Mimi tells him to," Lucas retorted.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sami insisted with a straight face. "I love Rex, he's my favorite twin brother who isn't my twin. I would never tease him about his love life."

"Sure you wouldn't," Lucas snorted.

They sat in comfortable silence for a long moment, but Lucas could feel the tension in his wife's shoulders, which had tightened upon his first mention of tomorrow, revealing just how worked up she really was about her mother being released from the sanitarium, despite her attempts to hide it.

"Are you nervous?" he asked softly.

Sami stiffened a little, clearly annoyed he was pressing the issue, but after a few seconds she spoke up anyway. "More like terrified," she confessed unhappily, biting her lip. "I just don't know what to expect, that's all. I mean, she's been gone for so long, and I'm just getting used to her actually being lucid, but tomorrow she'll be home for good and..."

She trailed off, a dark look crossing her face.

"And you feel guilty that you aren't going to be there, dealing with the uncomfortableness twenty-four hours a day like your father and Belle will," Lucas concluded knowingly, lifting her chin with his thumb. "Hey, no one expects you to drop everything because of this, Sami, they know you have a life of your own to manage. And you've done a hell of a job making sure things run smoothly for your family over the past few years, despite how much stress it's put on you. I think you, of all people, deserve a break."

"I just wish I could make this easier on Daddy and Belle," Sami said in frustration. "It's hard enough for Rex, Brady and I, but we can leave at the end of the day, we can go home and get away from it all for a while. They don't have that luxury."

"You shouldn't feel guilty for that, baby," Lucas told her.

"I know I shouldn't," Sami sighed heavily. "But I do."

Kissing the top of her hair, Lucas rested his chin on her head for a moment in thought. "You know, I think some part of you is resentful of Marlena coming home."

"What?" Sami cried indignantly. "I think you need your head examined, General."

"Just hear me out, okay?" Lucas requested.

Huffing, Sami folded her arms and glared up at him, but remained silent as she listened expectantly.

"I think you've gotten so used to filling the maternal role in the family, that you're feeling a bit replaced now that she's back," Lucas reasoned evenly. "After all, it was you who helped Belle get ready for her senior prom, who she came to when she and Philip were on the verge of having sex back in high school. You're the one who took Brady out ring shopping when he decided to propose to Nicole, who Rex comes to when he needs advice on Mimi, who made sure that John was taking proper care of himself. You've been the one they all relied on and turned to with their problems for so long, it's only logical that you feel a bit threatened by your mother's return."

Sami was silent for a long moment, and then gave a soft, bitter laugh. "I'm such a spoiled brat," she proclaimed. "Mom's finally on the road to recovery and she's struggling to make sense of things, while the rest of the family is just trying to get through things one day at a time, and here I am feeling sorry for myself that I'm not going to be needed as much because of it."

"You're not spoiled," Lucas assured her. "And you're far from being a brat, Goldilocks. In fact, you're one of the most selfless people I know, at least when it comes to your family."

"I don't feel very selfless at the moment," Sami muttered.

"I think you're entitled to feel whatever you want to, given the circumstances," Lucas replied gently. "But just because your mom is back, doesn't mean that your family's going to stop needing you, Sami. You've been their rock for so long, that's not likely to change. And it's going to take Marlena time to adjust, there's so much she can't remember and even more that she missed out on while in the sanitarium, she's going to need you to help her learn everything, even the littlest things like how everyone takes their coffee to the wedding plans Brady and Nicole have been working on."

Sami groaned at the mention of the words 'wedding plans', burying her face into her pillow.

"Long day at the office with Nicole?" Lucas chuckled knowingly.

"She's worked up about flowers," came his wife's muffled response. "Should she go with pink lilies or white lilies for the bridesmaid's bouquets? I'm beginning to wish Brandon was a woman so that he could be his sister's maid of honor instead."

"Yeah, right," Lucas snorted, although he had to admit it would be priceless to see Walker in a pink, fluffy dress. "You know you wouldn't have it any other way. Besides, it's good practice for when Philip and Belle decide to tie the knot."

"That better be a few years off," Sami said wearily. "Twenty is too young to get married."

"We were even younger when we got married, sweetheart," Lucas pointed out wryly. "Remember?"

"How could I forget?" Sami retorted. "I looked like a blimp in my wedding dress!"

"You were not," Lucas said, rolling his eyes. "You were only three months along, baby. You weren't even showing yet at the time. In fact, since neither John nor Bo drew their weapons during the ceremony, I bet some people didn't even realize it was a shotgun wedding."

Sami snorted at that, as he'd known she would. It had been a long running joke between them that it was a miracle it hadn't turned into a literal shotgun wedding, considering how many cops were in her family, but sometimes Lucas wondered if his cousin Hope, who just happened to be Sami's uncle Bo's wife, hadn't had something to do with that.

"Well, if Philip were to knock up Belle, he might not be so lucky," Sami pointed out wryly. "He wouldn't just have to worry about Daddy and Uncle Bo, but Brady, Rex, Eric, Shawn and Andrew, too. They're all very protective of her."

"And you're not?"

Sami made a face at him. "I happen to be very partial towards your kid brother, thank you very much," she replied. "I would have to stick up for him, someone would need to protect him from the Brady Bunch."

"Every time someone calls you all that, I hear the theme song," Lucas mused. "It's a story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls... One of them had hair of gold, just like her mother, and the oldest wasn't hers."

"Shut up, Lucas," Sami warned, narrowing her eyes, but that just furthered his amusement.

"It's a story, of a man named Brady, who had two boys of his own... they were three men, with another added, who was not his own..."

"So help me, Roberts," Sami growled, lifting her pillow threateningly.

"Till the one day when that lady and that fellow, fell into bed together on a hunch-"

"Lucas!"

Trying not to laugh at her outraged expression, Lucas finished the song with a smirk. "Along came the final member of the family, and that's the way they became the Brady Bunch."

He was going to sing the refrain, but Sami's pillow connected with his face, smothering his mouth, so he settled for pulling her down on top of him and tickling her, causing her to shriek with laughter. After all the years he'd known her, he could find her most ticklish spots with his eyes closed, giving him the advantage in situations like this.

"Lucas, stop," Sami cried, giggling madly as she tried to curl up into a ball to keep his hands away from her sides. "That isn't fair!"

"All's fair in love and tickle fights, sweetheart," Lucas quipped, grinning as his fingers found a particularly sensitive spot and she all but hyperventilated, she was laughing so hard.

Neither of them heard the sound of little feet padding down the hall, nor of their door creaking open, but they definitely heard the squeal of excitement that cut through the air just before a small missile hit the bed, knocking the wind out of Lucas as it landed on his stomach.

"What are you doing up, buddy?" he groaned, trying to dislodge Will.

Unfortunately for Lucas, he missed the conspiratorial look that passed between his wife and son, and the next thing he knew, they were both on top of him, tickling him mercilessly.


End file.
